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Rock Island Lines 



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Copyright by 
L. M. Allen, 1915 



Published by 

Passenger Traffic Department 

Rock Island Lines 

Ch icaqo 



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Dry Land Farming 

in the Southwest 



DAIRYING is the ONE never-failing money-making resource in dry land 
farming for the family with little capital. The native wild grass is a 
dependable dairy feed. Kafir and sorghum, when given good treatment, 
never fail to produce feed crops. These sure feed crops make good 
silage and for ten dollars outlay and his labor, the dry land farmer can build 
a pit silo. Buyers of cream pay cash at the time of each purchase. The dry 
land farmer with a herd of good dairy cows receives a cash income every 
week through the year, whether the- season is wet or dry. 

The new settler in a dry land country who takes a herd of milking cows 
with him can go out the first morning he is in his new home and milk the 
cows while his wife is getting breakfast. He can separate the cream and 
begin a steady cash income with the first day in his new home. The regular 
weekly return from the sale of cream enables the new settler to pay cash 
for his household supplies and he need not have store bills. The skim milk 
fed to hens and pigs adds to the profits. 

The countless losses and failures in dry land farming in the Southwest 
have come from attempts to make a living from exclusive grain farming and 
no stock. A careful dry land farmer in eastern Colorado raised six profitable 
crops of grain in 18 years. The 1914 grain crop is heavy throughout the 
Panhandle. The last generally good grain crop in that district was in 1908. 
The man who depends entirely upon raising grain finds the wait between 
crops too long. It is particularly hard when the new settler comes at the 
beginning of a period of dry years. Where the main income is furnished by 
the dairy cows, the dry land farmer lives comfortably every year. He sows 
grain only in those seasons Avhen there is ample moisture and the money that 
the grain brings is a surplus that can be used, for investment. 

"When the dry land farmer has sufficient capital and is not obliged to 
have a weekly or monthly income, beef cattle, horses and mules are money- 
makers. Many of the old settlers on the Plains have become wealthy and 
now have fine homes, some of them are bank directors, from the profits made 
from raising beef-cattle and horses. Beef-cattle can be finished to top the 
market on silage made from kafir or sorghum fed with kafir or milo grain 
and cottonseed meal. The gains are more rapid than the usual gains made 
in the corn belt. 

When you think of dry land farming think of dairying. When you 
move to a dry land farm take ten to twenty good dairy cows with you. Make 
your main crops feed crops for the dairy cows. Store the surplus in cheap 
pit silos. Take good care of the cows and of the cream. You will prosper. 



Hy^c**5^$\ 



Agricultural Commissioner, Rock Island Lines 



MAY -3 1315 



>CI.A J0112ti 




A Dry Land Farm Home. 



Dry Land Farming 

in the Southwest 



By II. M. COTTR KLL. Agricultural Commissioner 

HOCK hl.WI) LINKS 



The Land 



Till! new settler in ;i dry land district in the 
Southwesl should have ;i Farm of 320 acres. 
IT he docs nut have sufficient capital to 
justify the purchase of 320 acres, lie should buy 

Kin iici-i's and arrange to lease 160 acres of un- 
broken land. 

On the 320-aere farm, 160 should he kepi in 

native grass to be used as n led lor a pasture 

either summer or winter. The aative grass has 
never been appreciated by the dry land farmers. 
Nine out of every ten of them have a craze for 
plowing up all the land for which th'-\ ran secure 
title Ninety-nine drj land farmers out of every 
hundred have from two to ten times as much 
land under cultivation as they can handle thor- 
oughly. The result is failure after failure to 
raise good crops, while if such an acreage only as 
can he well worked is under cultivation, the 
yields will he good in mosl years. Many dry land 
farmers fail because they have 100 to 200 acres 
per man under cultivation when they have team 
power sufficienl for forty acres only. 

A 160-acre native grass pasture is one of the 
most certain assets of a 320-acre dry land farm. 
The native grasses have been thoroughly adapted 
to soil and climate by thousands of years of 
struggle, in which the fittest have survived. From 
four to eight acres will furnish feed for a cow 
through the summer and an equal acreage, not 



pastured in the summer, will supply a good share 
of the E I she needs in winter. In a long con- 
tinued drought the native grass gets short, hut 
always supplies some feed, and the deficiency can 
ide up by silage. 
An Iowa farmer came to eastern < olorado too 
late iii tin- fall to raise crops. ( >n the farm that 
lie boughl was a good Dative :_ r rass pasture that 
had not been usee) during tin- summer. Cows on 

this pasture as their only feed returned an aver- 
age of $4 per month per cow. The reason that 
winter pasture on the dry farming lands is so 
valuable is that there is so little rainfall during 
the fall and winter. The grass cures where it 
grows ami there i> no moisture to wash away 
the nutriment. The native pasture deserves ._..,.„! 
care. It should not he over-pastured and when 
weeds dex elop they should he cut. 

For the 160 acres used tor crops the following 
arrangement is suggested, subject to such 
changes as individual conditions make necessary: 
6l I acres in cultivated crops. 
20 acres in hay and forage crops. 
-h» acres in small grain. 
5 acres in home grounds, garden and yards, 
in acres in hog pasture. 

2~< acres in native grass-reserve winter pasture. 
160 acres. 

The sixty acres in cultivated crops should be 
planted to kafir, milo or feterita. depending on 
the rainfall. No corn should he grown for grain 
except on the Arkansas Divide, east of Colorado 
Springs. 



DRY LAND FARMING IN THE SOUTHWEST 



The twenty acres for hay should be sown to 
winter rye, sorghum or millet, as the rainfall and 
farm work make advisable. Five acres may be 
sown to sweet clover and it is probable that the 
amount will be increased after the farmer learns 
how to raise and feed the crop. 

The forty acres for small grain should be sown 
only in seasons when the soil is in such condition 
as to force rapid growth after seeding. In other 
years this land may be summer fallowed by list- 
ing and planted to cultivated crops the following 
spring. 

One acre of the five selected for home grounds 
should be used for a garden and irrigated from 
the windmill. This acre will supply more vege- 
tables, berries, rhubarb and asparagus than a 
large family can use through the year. 

The new settler on the dry land farm will have 
to sow rye, winter wheat, rape and sorghum for 
his hog pasture until he can get sweet clover or 
alfalfa established. Ten acres, in an ordinary 
year, is sufficient to pasture five brood sows and 
their pigs. 

On most 160-acre tracts there is a small ravine 
or some rough land and this can be included in 
the twenty-five acres reserved especially for win- 
ter pasture. 

To utilize the crops from a 320-acre farm in 
the dry land district, one well managed according 
to this plan, there will be required twenty good 
dairy cows, five brood sows and 100 or more hens. 

Choice cows, well fed, will return $75 a cow 
yearly from the sale of cream; good grade cows, 
$50 each a year, and poor ones, $25 each. Twenty 
good grade cows properly selected will return 
to their owner $1,000 a year, besides the skim 
milk and the butter, cream and milk used by a 
large family. 

With ordinary care, thirty pigs can be raised to 
marketable age from five good brood sows. The 
farmer can take five for his own use and sell 
twenty-five. At a fair price these will sell for 
$300. The last two years they would have 
brought $375 to $400. 

If the dry land farmer will select a good laying 
strain of fowls and keep only early hatched pul- 
lets and one-year-old hens, and make a business 
of taking care of them, he can make $2 to $3 a 
hen a year above all cash outlay. The only feed 
that he will have to buy will be meat, oyster 
shells and grit. Skim milk will take the place of 
most of the meat. One hundred hens, rightly 
managed, will return $200 a year, besides all the 
eggs, frys and roasters the family wants. 

A fair yearly cash income from a 320-acre dry 
land farm, well managed according to this plan, 
will be, from cows, $1,000; hogs, $300; poultry, 
$200; total, $1,500, and a bountiful living for a 
large family. In poor years the return may be 
less ; in good years, more. There is not an item 
in this account that cannot be increased by expert 
management. A skilled dairyman with choice 
cows will secure $1,500 a year from the sale of 
cream alone. In seasons favorable to grain, the 
forty acres of small grain will bring $400 to $600. 



A special feature of this plan is that through 
the sales pf cream and butter a weekly cash in- 
come is secured throughout the year. The sur- 
plus forage crops produced in the good years 
can be held over to supply the deficiency in dry 
seasons. The dry land farmer will not be forced 
to sell them. 

This income is based on an adequate equipment 
of teams and stock and thorough farming. If the 
equipment is insufficient, or the stock of the 
wrong type, or the management poor, the returns 
will be lessened in proportion to the lack. If 
the farmer is lazy or incompetent, or belongs to 
the always "unlucky" class, the income may drop 
any amount down to nothing. Dry land farming 
is a business that men without farm training 
should let strictly alone. They can count, with 
rare exceptions, on absolute failure. 

BUILDINGS AND EQUIPMENT FOR A 320- 
ACRE DRY LAND FARM. 

Buildings and Fencing. 

Four-room house $600 

Stable for four horses 100 

Shed for ten cows. 100 

Well 150 

Windmill and pump 110 

Water tank (fifteen barrels) 15 

Two pit silos 40 

Barbed wire fence (4% miles) 245 

Hog fence (half mile) 65 — $1,425 

Livestock. 

Ten cows $750 

One hundred hens 100 

Five sows 75 

Three heavy horses and harness 500 — $1,425 

Implements and Tools. 

Plow (12-inch) $ 12 

Lister and drill 28 

Lister sled cultivator 18 

Wagon 85 

Disc harrow 3 5 

Spike tooth harrow 14 

Two-horse cultivator 20 

One-horse cultivator (14-tooth) 5 

Mowing machine 55 

Hay rake 3 5 

Grain drill (ten discs, press wheals) . . . 100 

Four 40-quart milk cans 14 

Hand cream separator 5 

Tools, milk pails, forks, etc 25 — $ 496 

Total $3,346 




Sunday School Rally, Twenty-two Miles from 
Nearest Railroad Point. 



ROCK ISLAND LINES 



This equipment feuees the farm to the best ad- 
vantage, equips it with ample buildings and with 
horses and cows sufficient to do good work and 
secure a good weekly cash income. As fast as 
the income from the farm justifies it, the herd 
should be increased to twenty choice cows and 
to five heavy work horses. If the horses are 
mares, the colts will add to the income. The 
poultry can be increased to 400 hens easily by 
selecting the best of the early hatched pullets 
for two or three years, and the number of brood 
sows can be increased to any desired number by 
the saving each year of the best sow pigs. 

WHAT TO DO WHEN CAPTIAL IS 
INSUFFICIENT. 

The buildings, fencing, livestock, implements 
and tools recommended for the most advantage- 
ous equipment of a 320-acre dry land farm re- 
quire an investment of $3,346, besides the first 
payment on the land. Many men who hope to 
build homes on dry land farms do not have so 
much money. 

By using adobe brick, which are home-made, 
the cost of the house can be reduced one-third, 
and that of the stable, shed and hen house, one- 
half. The cost of the buildings will be reduced 
from $800 to $500, the new settler using in this 
case his labor and time instead of money. 

A small pit silo can be built for a cash outlay 
of $10. The barbed wire fence can be limited to 
two miles that is necessary to fence around one 
160-acre field, which will cost $110. The hog 
fence requirements may be cut in half, which will 
make the cost $35. If badly cramped for money, 
the new settler can start with five cows, costing 
$250. He can start with $50 worth of hens and 
one brood sow costing $15. He should not reduce 
the expenditure for horses, as horse power is 
one of the great assets in successful dry land 
farming. He can rent a grain drill and save 
$100. With these cuts, a fair outfit can be se- 
cured for $2,140. Many farmers have the teams 
and tools and stock, in which case they could 
start with $1,000 cash, in addition to the first pay- 
ment on the land. 

Many men who are now "comfortably well off" 
started on dry land farms with much less, but 
they had hardships that they would not care to 
repeat. One of the most successful dry land 
farmers in Colorado had a one-room shack built 
on his farm and took his wife and three babies 
to it with cash assets of $4.60. He worked for 
neighbors, borrowed implements, got hold of a 
cow or two, and finally got on his feet and made 
a good income every year. He is the kind of man 
that will succeed anywhere. 

Another man had the money to put up a small 
house and a shed. He had two horses and a 
cow and brought with him a fair stock of farm 
implements. He started to raise grain only. 
Drought followed drought. He decided to leave 
the country and offered his goods for sale. A 



banker heard of it and sent for the man. The 
banker told him to stay. The dry land farmer's 
cow was an unusually good one. The banker 
said that he would loan the farmer money enough 
to buy another cow, taking the two for security 
and to receive one-half the cream money until the 
note was paid. The farmer reluctantly consented 
to try the plan, as there was a large acreage of 
wild grass pasture near his place. He soon paid 
for the second cow. The banker loaned him 
money on the same terms to buy two more. Soon 
the farmer owned four cows and the banker 
loaned him the money to buy four more. He 
now owns a good herd and is an enthusiast on 
the advantages of dry land farming, but his first 
struggles were harder than most men would en- 
dure. A good dairy herd, owned from the start, 
would have prevented this hardship and given 
him a weekly cash income. 

A mistake that has led to failure with many dry 
land farmers is paying too much for their 
land. Land is worth that amount only upon 
which the net returns equal a fair rate of interest. 
For example, in sections of the Southwest it is 
considered that 640 acres in native grass will fur- 
nish the feed for twelve months for forty cattle. 
What is the land worth? Suppose that 75 cents 
a month per head is charged for pasture, or $9 
per head per year. A 640-acre tract brings an 
annual rental of $360. If money loaned on land 
brings eight per cent, then $360 is a fair return 
on $4,440, and this is the worth of 640 acres, a 
little less that $7 an acre. 

Yet thousands of dry land farmers have paid 
$20 to $30 an acre for raw land of exactly this 
kind, and have lost all they had because there 
was no way in which to meet the interest and 
payments due on the high valuation. 

Men who ask high prices for such land base 
their prices on what it will return when fenced 
and improved with buildings, water works, 
stocked with dairy cattle and under a good state 
of cultivation. The buyer has to make all these 
improvements and he should get the benefit of 
the increase in the value of the land which his 
expenditures make, and not the man who sells the 
raw land. 

There is very little raw dry farming land in 
the Southwest that is worth, as a producing prop- 
osition, more than $10 an acre, and most of it is 
not worth more than $5 an acre. 



The Dairy Cow 



THE kind of cows which the dry land farmer 
milks and uses to consume his feed deter- 
mines whether he will eke out a bare liv- 
ing or have a comfortable income. The dry land 
farmers, as a class, pay less attention to the se- 
lection of cows that will return good profits than 
any other farmers in the world. The majority 
of these farmers think that any cow that has a 



DRY LAND FARMING IN THE SOUTHWEST 



calf taken away from her when she is fresh there- 
by becomes a dairy cow, even though her udder 
is no larger than a man's hat and her shoulders 
and loins are thick meated. 

I held a dairy meeting in a dry farming district 
in eastern Colorado and had some good dairy 
cows to show the audience how to select one. A 
farmer got up and said that his wife, himself 
and his children were working harder than people 
had any right to work, and yet it was a severe 
struggle to make even a bare living. They de- 
pended for their living on a dairy herd. He said 
that he thought from my talk that he must be 
milking the wrong kind of cows. He asked me 
if I would be willing to examine his cows if he 
and his boy would drive the herd to the meeting. 
Of course, nothing suited me better. 

He brought in the fourteen cows he was milk- 
ing. One was a grade shorthorn of strong dairy 
type and would produce at least $75 worth of 
cream a year. The other thirteen were just cows, 
cows with small beefy udders, thick backs and 
small paunches, cows that would each produce 
$2 to $3 worth of cream a month for a few 
months after coming fresh, and then become 
"strippers" for the rest of the year. This herd 
fairly represents the cows that most dry land 
farmers are milking. 

The farmer said that lie would fatten his poor 
cows and with the money that they brought he 
would buy the right kind. He said that he was 
sure that with the right kind of cows he could 
get $1,000 more each year from the feed that he 
raised. 

The first thing to be looked for in selecting a 
profitable dairy cow is a large paunch. The more 



feed a cow can eat and store and turn into milk, 
the more . will she increase the owner 's bank ac- 
count. The dry land farmer cannot afford to 
buy grain, unless perhaps a little cottonseed meal. 
He must feed his cows almost entirely on rough, 
bulky feeds, such as grass, silage, sorghum hay 
and Spanish peanut hay. A cow to return profits 
must be able to store, twice a day, a large quan- 
tity of these coarse feeds. 

The paunch must stand out wide and be long 
and deep. To allow this, the ribs must be long 
and well rounded, and there should be a long 
space between the hip bone and the last rib. 
Blocky and pony built cows turn their feed into 
flesh instead of milk and give a good quantity 
of milk for only a few months. A flat ribbed 
cow is not profitable, as her paunch cannot spread 
out enough. 

The second thing to look for is a sharp, thin 
meated back just behind the shoulders. When a 
cow is in good flesh and has a sharp, thin back, 
it indicates that she does not change her feed into 
flesh. When a cow has a smooth round, thickly 
meated back, it shows that she changes her feed 
into flesh. With the thin sharp back are usually 
prominent hip bones and thinly fleshed thighs 
and shoulders. In an animal that turns its feed 
into flesh, the hip bones do not show much, as 
they are covered with meat. 

The third thing to look for is a place for a large 
udder. The udder is the machine that makes the 
milk from the food materials digested and ab- 
sorbed by the body. A large, good udder will 
produce a large yield of milk. Nature never puts 
a good udder outside the body. A good dairy 
cow has the flank well arched and is cut high be- 




Fall Listing on Hillsides— Holding Snow. Furrows Run on Level on Hillsides to Prevent Washing. 



ROCK ISLAND LINES 



tween the hind legs. These two features indicate 
a place for a large udder. In a cow that turns 
her feed to beef, the flank comes down almost 
straight with the belly line and the flesh between 
the hind legs comes down well toward the belly. 
There are many minor points that an expert 
studies in selecting a money making cow, but if 
the beginner will make himself competent to se- 
lect cows having these three special features 
strongly developed, he may feel sure of being 
able to choose cows that, properly fed, will pay 
well. In every town are several family dairy- 
cows that give large quantities of milk through 
most of the year and are hard to "dry up." The 
owner of each of these cows boasts that his cow 
furnishes all the milk, cream and butter that his 
large family can use, and that he frequently has 
milk to sell. A day spent in studying such cows 
and in comparing their points with those of cows 
that give little milk, but are thick meated beef 
animals, will enable a dry land farmer to select 
cows that will return to him $75_a cow a year in- 
stead of $24 a cow from a "hit and miss" herd. 

WHERE TO FIND THE COW. 

The most profitable cow is the pure bred of 
the strong dairy type — a cow whose ancestors for 
centuries have been selected, fed and handled to 
produce large yields at low cost. In eastern Col- 
orado most of the expert dairymen keep Hol- 
steins. The Texans generally prefer the Jerseys. 
Few dry land farmers have either the money to 
buy these specially bred dairy cows or the expe- 
rience to handle them. 

Most of the dry land farmers will have to be 
content with common grade cows selected from 
range herds. In most beef herds in the South- 
west will be found one or more choice dairy 
cows. Usually they are grade shorthorns that 
have "bred back" to the original shorthorn of one 
hundred years ago, which was a good milk pro- 
ducer. The cattlemen will generally sell such 
cows for less money than the smooth, thick 
meated ones, because such cows are "rough." 

A dry land farmer who learns to choose a good 
dairy cow can, by taking plenty of time, ride 
around among the beef herds and buy here and 
there a good cow. A dairy herd can be built up 
in this way at a low cost that will produce $50 to 
$75 worth of cream a cow each year. The farmer 
should always be ready to fatten and sell any cow 
in his herd that does not come up to this standard 
and always ready to use this money to buy a good 
cow. 

FEEDING THE DAIRY COW. 

Native pasture and silage should be available 
summer and winter. The silage should be fed 
generously at any time of the year when the grass 
is not sufficient to secure a high yield of milk. 
In dry times during the summer and at all times 
during the winter, sorghum hay and the hay 
from either alfalfa, sweet clover or Spanish pea- 
nuts, should be fed liberally. Rye pasture can 
usually be provided and it makes a good winter 



feed. In favorable years wheat pasture may fur- 
nish nearly all the feed needed for a high yield 
during the winter. Five good cows fed all they 
will eat will yield more profit than fifteen half 
starved. 

The daily ration must be balanced between the 
starchy, heat-making feeds like silage, sorghum 
hay, corn fodder and millet and the blood- and 
muscle-making feeds like alfalfa, sweet clover 
and Spanish peanut hays. Every cow yields a 
good flow of milk on green, luscious grass. The 
grass furnishes about three and a half parts of 
the starchy to one of the blood and muscle- 
making material. Dry land farmers often say 
that sorghum hay will "dry up" a cow if she is 
given enough of it. It will when fed alone, but 
it may be fed in large quantities to advantage 
when balanced properly with hay from alfalfa, 
sweet clover or Spanish peanuts. Cottonseed meal 
is a convenient feed in Texas and Oklahoma with 
which to balance sorghum and millet hay and 
silage. 



The Pit Silo 



TWO thousand pit silos were made and filled 
in the fall of 1913 in the dry farming dis- 
tricts served by the Rock Island Lines. 
The summer was one of the dryest ever known, 
not only in the dry farming country but through- 
out the West. Corn and feed crops were burned 
and dried up through the Middle West. The 
farmers who dug pit silos were able to save this 
scorched and withered forage by putting it into 
the silos. The silage furnished a succulent feed 
and made the cows give a flow of milk that 
brought a cash income throughout the winter. 
These pit silos were built at a total cash outlay 
per silo of from $5 to $25. 

The pit silos and the silage changed the senti- 
ment of the people throughout the dry farming 
districts of five southwestern states. Any man, 
no matter how cramped financially, can make a 
pit silo. Few dry land farmers in a bad year are 




A Sod Poultry House in Eastern Colorado^ 



DRY LAND FARMING IN THE SOUTHWEST 



able to spend $200 to $800 to build a silo above 
ground. But little feed value can be realized 
from crops "burned up" by drought when they 
are saved in shocks. The leaves blow away and 
the sand and the dirt blow through and through 
the shocks. The parched and shriveled feed put 
into the pit silos made money for every man who 
had them. The conclusion which the men reached 
was that when they could make money in an 
unfavorable year with feed scorched by drought, 
that they could make more money in the average 
years when good feed is produced by putting it 
in the silos. The silo would make dry land farms 
money producers every year. 

MAKING THE PIT SILO. 

Drive a rod or piece of gas pipe into the ground 
at the center of the silo. Bore a hole in one end 
of a 2x4 plank and run the rod through the hole. 
At the other end of the 2x4 drive two heavy 
spikes. The inside spoke should be set at a dis- 
tance from the rod equal to one-half the diameter 
of the silo. The outer spike should be driven 
one foot farther out. Swing the 2x4 in a circle 
on the ground and the spikes will scratch two 
circles, twelve inches apart. Dig a trench two 
or three feet deep between these circles. Fill 
the trench with a mixture of sand and cement, 
using one part of cement to six of sharp, clean 
sand. Let this set and harden for two or three 
days. It makes a collar for the pit silo. 

It is often advisable to extend this collar two 
to four feet above the surface of the ground in 
order to keep storm water from running into the 
silo. This can be done by using metal lath for 
a core on which to place the concrete, or two cir- 

Hip bones covered 
with flesh. 



cles of the proper size and height can be made of 
galvanized iron and used for forms between 
which the concrete can be placed. As soon as 
the concrete above ground has set, remove these 
forms. One set of forms will do for a neigh- 
borhood. 

As soon as the collar has become well set, dig 
the silo. Start on the inside of the collar, and 
as you dig down keep the walls smooth and per- 
pendicular. Any bulge or hollow makes an air 
space that causes spoiled silage. In El Paso 
County, Colorado, many pit silo builders saw off 
the 2x4 used to mark out the silo, so that it will 
just swing inside the wall as the hole is dug. On 
the outer end of this 2x4 they bolt a knife made 
from an old plow share, the front edge of the 
knife being kept sharp. As they dig down they 
keep driving down the center rod so this it is al- 
ways in the center of the silo. With their spades 
they dig out the earth almost to the silo wall. 
They then swing the 2x4 around the circle and 
the knife on the end shaves off the dirt, making 
the wall smooth and exactly in line. 

Dig down six feet, wet the dirt wall thoroughly 
and plaster it with a mixture of one part cement 
to two parts of sharp, clean sand, making the 
plaster three-fourths to an inch thick. The dirt 
wall can be wet before it is plastered by taking 
water from a pail and spreading it on the wall 
with a broom. When the soil is not wet it ab- 
sorbs the moisture from the cement mixture, dry- 
ing out the plastering so quickly that it is likely 
to peel off after a year's use. Dampen the cement 
plaster twice a day for a week. Cement that 
dries slowly is tough ; when it dries quickly it 
cracks or crumbles. 

Round thick 
meated back. 




Flank nearly straight with 
belly. No room for udder. 



Type of Meat Animal. 



ROCK ISLAND LINES 



When six feet of the wall are plastered, dig 
down another six feet and plaster it and con- 
tinue until you have reached the desired depth. 
This method makes scaffolding unnecessary. 
After the plastering is finished, wet the walls 
thoroughly and paint them with a mixture of pure 
cement and water made about as thick as cream. 
The bottom will need no cement. 

These directions are for making a pit silo in 
dry, hard ground. In sandy ground_the plaster- 
ing may have to be made three inches thick. The 
plan usually followed is to dig the hole, then use 
the galvanized sheet iron circle for an inside form, 
and the earth wall for the outside form. Start 
at the bottom and fill the space between the iron 
form and the earth with the cement mixture. Let 
this set, then raise the form and fill the sec- 
tion above, and so on until the top is reached. 

SIZE OF SILO. 

A mixed herd will eat about thirty pounds of 
silage a head a day. If the herd is all mature 
cows, forty pounds a head a day will be needed. 
For six months feeding of a mixed herd it is 
safe to calculate on three tons per animal. 

Decide on the number of days that silage 
probably will be fed, including summer as well 
as winter, and the number of cattle to be fed. 
You can then calculate the number of tons of 
silage needed. The depth of the pit silo should 
be about twice the diameter. The capacity of 
silos is as follows: 



Diameter, 


Depth, 


Capacity, 


feet. 


feet. 


tons. 


12 


20 


38 


14 


25 


71 


16 


30 


119 


18 


32 


166 


20 


36 


243 



Two pulleys attached to a derrick made from 
three poles, a tub made from half an oil barrel 
and a rope make a cheap device for hoisting out 
the silage. A hay track with a box attached to 
the carrier makes a convenient hoisting appa- 
ratus. Ingenious dry land farmers have devised 
many other handy methods. 

THE FEEDS TO GROW FOR SILAGE. 

The Kansas Experiment Station in three years' 
feeding tests with both beef and dairy cattle 
found that silage made from corn, kafir and sor- 
ghum have equal feeding value, ton for ton, pro- 
vided each is cut at the proper stage of maturity. 
The corn should be cut when the kernels become 
well dented and the kafir and sorghum when the 
seeds become so hard that they cannot be crushed 
between the thumb and forefinger, but while the 
leaves are green and the stalks sappy. 

The crop to grow, then, is that one of these 
three, which, on the grower's farm, will probably 
produce the greatest number of tons per acre. 
Whichever crop is selected should be planted and 
cultivated to produce the largest yield of grain. 
Thick planted crops with little grain lack feed 
value. 



Long distance between 
last rib and hip bones. 



Prominent 
hip bones. 



Larg-e paunch 
room for feed. 




Arched flank providing: 
room forludder. 



Type of Dairy Cow. 



10 



DRY LAND FARMING IN THE SOUTHWEST 



FILLING THE SILO. 

The green material should be cut into short 
lengths, three-fourths to one inch, and this ma- 
terial should be so closely packed everywhere in 
the silo that very little air can find space be- 
tween the particles. The closer the green pieces 
are packed and the less air between them, the 
better will the silage heat, cure and keep. 

The material in the silo will not pack suffi- 
ciently close unless it is damp. It should be damp 
enough so that when a handful is picked up as it 
goes from the cutter to the silo a little juice 
can be squeezed out of it. Each piece should be 
damp all over. It does not pack well when some 
handfuls are dripping wet and others too dry. 
Green, sappy corn, just in the roasting stage, has 
the right amount of moisture to pack well. If the 
material being put into the silo is dryer than this, 
sprinkle it with water as it leaves the cutter so 
that it will become just moist enough. A few 
feeders wet the silage until it is sloppy. This 
injures it. 

There should be a careful man in the silo as it 
is being filled to see that the feed is evenly dis- 
tributed and evenly packed. Keep the stalks, 
leaves and grain thoroughly mixed all the 
time clear across the silo. Keep the feed level and 
evenly packed in the center and along the side. 
The man should press his feet down hard as he 
tramps the feed, and when he finds a pocket or 
hollow place he should fill and tramp it until it 
is firm as the material around it. 

Some men tramp the center hard and neglect 
the material on the outside. In this case the cen- 
ter settles but little, the outside settles most, 
contracts and draws away from the walls, letting 
in the air. Spoiled silage follows. Other men let 
the material in the center take care of itself and 
tramp hard along the walls of the silo. In this 
case the outside settles little, the center much, 
and the air is drawn into the mass of silage and 
a lot of it is spoiled. The green material must 
be tramped firmly throughout the silo. 

The dry land farmers feed silage with good re- 
sults to horses, mules, colts, dairy and beef ani- 
mals, calves, hogs and poultry. The only pre- 
caution necessary is that moldy silage must not 
be fed to horses, mules and colts. It is likely to 
kill them. 



Beef Cattle 



THE dry farming districts of the Southwest 
offer good opportunities for the man with 
capital to raise and fatten beef cattle. For 
the past forty years or more the stockmen in 
these districts have raised beef cattle by the mil- 
lions and have sent them to the North and East 
to be fattened. It has been the generally ac- 
cepted opinion that cattle could not be finished 
on dry land feeds to make choice beef. The feed- 



ing of silage made from dry land crops with cot- 
tonseed meal and kafir and milo by feeders in 
widely scattered territory has demonstrated that 
in the dry land country beef cattle can be well 
fattened at a low cost. 

The three years demonstration at the Kansas 
Agricultural College showing that silage made 
from corn, kafir and sorghum has the same value, 
ton for ton, when each is cut at the proper stage 
of maturity, has opened up a great field for feed- 
ers in the Southwest. In western Kansas and 
Oklahoma an acre of sorghum, well cultivated 
and put in the silo at the right time, will, in an 
average year, furnish the rough feed for three 
stock cattle through the winter, or the rough feed 
needed in fattening eight steers. 

The farmers in western Kansas and Oklahoma 
by growing kafir or sorghum can secure as many 
tons of silage per acre with as great a feed value 
as is now being obtained by the corn growers 
in the Mississippi Valley. Milo. when acclimated 
seed is used, is a sure grain crop. Heads of milo 
ground without the expense of threshing and 
sprinkled over the sil»ge, makes a ration that 
will put two pounds ot gain per day a head on 
fattening steers. Three or four pounds of cot- 
tonseed meal a day per steer added to the ration 
will nearly double the gains and reduce the cost. 

In western Texas sorghum is a sure forage 
crop. The red sumac is the variety that has av- 
eraged the highest yields. The crop should be 
cut and put into the silo as soon as the seeds are 
hard. Large areas can be handled cheaply and 
well by planting with a two-row lister and culti- 
vating with two-row cultivator. Mile-long rows 
are practicable on every ranch and help reduce 
the cost. 

The cattlemen of west Texas have spent more 
money in improving the blood in their herds than 
the stockmen of any other grazing district. In 
almost any herd in west Texas the calves at wean- 
ing time are equal in form, size and weight to 
the pure bred cattle of the corn belt. From wean- 
ing time on they generally show a steady deterio- 
ration in quality so long as they are kept on their 
home ranches. The feed is dry in^ winter and 
often deficient in quality. The yearling in the 
spring weighs less than he did the fall before and 
it takes him until the first of July to get back to 
the weight he had when he was weaned. Some- 
times a severe drought cuts off the feed in sum- 
mer and the cattle become so stunted that they 
never fully recover. 

Silos filled with cane will stop these losses. 
Summer or winter, whenever feed gets short, sil- 
age can always be ready, and with it there never 
need be a day in the life of a steer in Texas that 
he does not gain in weight. The Texas stockman 
can open his silos as soon as the pastures get 
short, feed just enough silage to keep the stock 
gaining, and as soon as good pastures come again, 
seal up the silage that is left and hold it for an- 
other time of need. In years of heavy rainfall sil- 
age can be stored for years of drought. It is just 



EOCK ISLAND LINES 



11 



as good six years after it is made as in the first 
season. 

Cane will enable the west Texas stockman to 
fatten his cattle. Milo is a good grain crop in 
that part of the state, and Texas is the largest 
producer of cottonseed meal. Milo. ground in 
the head and mixed with cottonseed meal, and 
the mixture sprinkled on cane silage, will put 
three to five pounds of gain a day on a well bred 
Texas steer. 

The dry land districts of the Southwest have 
great advantage as a feeding country. Dry win- 
ters insure dry feed lots. The crisp, dry air gives 
the fattening steer an appetite that forces him to 
eat enough feed to make rapid gains. The cli- 
mate requires only cheap shelter for stock. The 
character of soil and lay of land enable one man 
to plant and cultivate a large area. There is an 
abundance of good water. The silo provides a 
way to make use of these opportunities. 

Most of the men who will settle the plains will 
be men of much energy and little capital. They 
will make dairying their main source of income 
because they will need the regular weekly cash 
return from the sale of cream. These men will 
become prosperous and in such financial condi- 
tion that they will not need quick sales. They will 
then gradually change their herds from the dairy 
to the beef type and fatten the beef cattle that 
they raise. 

Under plains conditions, where two or more 
men work together, 200 beef cattle can be well 
taken care of per man. It seems probable that 
the dry land feeder will keep his pasture filled to 
the limit with breeding cows, using silage when- 
ever the pasture becomes short. The calves will 
be forced from the time they are weaned and will 
be marketed at top price when fourteen to eigh- 
teen months of age. 




RAISING hogs is a profitable sideline on dry 
land farms. Climatic conditions are par- 
ticularly favorable for handling hogs 
cheaply. The kafirs — kafir, milo and feterita — 
are sure grain crops, and ten bushels of either 
are equal to nine bushels of corn. Hogs will 
make 500 to 1,000 pounds of gain from each acre 
of Spanish peanuts and gather the crop them- 
selves. Alfalfa furnishes good pasture where 
there is water five to ten feet below the surface 
and sweet clover yields well even on the dryest 
hills. The skim milk from the dairy cows will 
push the pigs at weaning. Denver, Wichita, 
Oklahoma City and Ft. Worth are good markets 
close to the dry land farming districts, and each 
needs a hundred times as many hogs as they 
are getting. 

Hog raising has generally been a failure on dry 
land farms. One class of men have failed be- 
cause they have kept their hogs in dry lots and 
fed them grain only. The grain cost more than 
the hogs were worth, the hogs became unthrifty 
because they did not have pasture, they got lousy 
and the dust made them cough so badly that 
they could not make gains. 

Another class of dry land farmers took pretty 
good care of the pigs until they were weaned and 
then turned old hogs and pigs together into a 
scant pasture, fed little or no grain through the 
summer and were careless about watering. In 
the fall they had a lot of badly stunted shoats 
on hand. Some years there was a good grain 
crop, but it took twice as much grain to fatten 
the hogs as it would if they had not been stunted. 
In years when corn failed the farmer had a big 




Showing Construction of Pit Silo on Dry Land Farm. 



12 



DRY LAND FARMING IN THE SOUTHWEST 



bunch of stunted hogs that he could not sell and 
for which he had no feed. 

Hog raising can be made profitable on dry land 
farms when it is handled rightly. A few sows 
only should be kept; two to five are enough to 
start with. The sows should be prolific, the kind 
that raise from eight to ten pigs at a litter. The 
farmer must provide cheap but good shelter at 
farrowing time and must give the sow such care 
that she will save every pig that is born. The 
skim milk should be fed the sows and pigs until 
the pigs are weaned and then the pigs should 
get it. A pig should have a little grain every day 
of his life — one to three pounds each daily until he 
weighs 100 pounds, and then two to four pounds 
daily. A pig should have rough feed every day 
of his life, pasture in the summer and alfalfa or 
sweet clover in winter. Half the weight at mar- 
keting time must have been made from pasture 
or rough feed if hog raising is to be profitable. 

The general management required to make 
money with hogs is the same on dry land farms 
as it is in the rain belt. There are two things 
the raiser has to keep in view all the time, cheap- 
ness in shelter and handling and feeding to make 
the pig gain every day from birth to maturity. 

An A-shaped house 8x8x8 feet makes a cheap 
movable shelter — one house for each sow and her 
pigs. In cold weather it can be covered with 
straw or fodder. When pigs are farrowed in 
cold weather a lighted lantern hung from the 
roof will keep such a house warm. 

A cement feeding floor is very convenient in 
fattening. A floor 30x40 feet is large enough 
for a carload of hogs. It should have six inches 
of slope for each ten feet of width. Kafir or milo 
in the head can be thrown on the upper side of 
this floor and the hogs will work the trash to 
the lower edge as they eat the grain. Hay from 
alfalfa, sweet clover or Spanish peanuts can be 
thrown on the upper side of the floor and the 
hogs will work the refuse from this to the lower 
side as they eat the leaves and finer stems. It 
is easy to rake the trash off the floor because it 
gathers at one side. 

Hogs, to thrive, must have pure drinking 
water at will. One of the most convenient ways 
to provide this is to mount a barrel on a small 
sled and attach to the lower part of the barrel an 
automatic hog waterer, such as any good hard- 
ware store can furnish. The barrel and sled can 
be moved to any field where the hogs are pas- 
turing and the water will be kept fairly clean. 

Lice cut down the profits more than any other 
one thing. Set short posts in the feed lots and 
pastures. Wrap each post with an old potato 
sack. Once a week soak the sack with crude oil. 
A louse bites the hog, he rubs the spot on the 
sack and the crude oil, kills the louse. 

Make a hog bath of concrete 8x10 feet and 16 
inches deep. Fill nearly to the top with wa- 
ter and add a small quantity of crude oil. The 
hogs will bathe several times a day and the oil 
will kill lice and keep the skin healthy. Replace 
the water and oil as needed. 



For worms, take an ounce of Santonin for each 
fifty 100-pound pigs. Mix thoroughly with slop.. 
Keep pigs off feed from night to the following 
noon, and then give the slop. 

Change feed lots or keep them clean and 
sprinkled so that dust will not bother the hogs. 
Large numbers of hogs on dry land farms are 
kept at a loss because of dust and the coughing 
that it causes. 

FEEDS. 

The dry land grain feeds are kafir, milo and 
feterita. The cheapest way to feed them is 
in the head without either threshing or grind- 
ing. The fat from hogs fattened on these 
feeds is whiter in color than that from corn fed 
hogs. Pork from hogs fed these feeds would 
command a premium if there was enough to cre- 
ate a special brand. A Panhandle hog man two 
years ago bought 4,000 bushels of milo and 
bought hogs to fatten on it. The milo fed to 
hogs brought an average return of $1.05 per 
bushel. Farmers without hogs sold it at 30 cents 
a bushel. 

In the dryest year ever known in the Panhan- 
dle of Texas, a farmer had a large field of Span- 
ish peanuts. He weighed hogs into this field 
and they gathered the crop themselves. They 
had no other grain. When they became fat he 
shipped the hogs, weighing them as they were 
taken from the peanut field. He received pay for 
1,023 pounds gain on the hogs for each acre of 
Spanish peanuts. 

Spanish peanut hay, the tops and nuts cured 
together, makes a good hog feed. This feed 
forces the brood sow to give a large yield of 
milk, it pushes the growth of the young pigs 
and combines to best advantage with kafir and 
milo to make rapid gains on fattening hogs. This 
hay can be kept in well made stacks and used 
both summer and winter. 

At the Kansas Experiment station the writer 
divided a number of hogs into two equal lots 
and fattened one lot on kafir and one lot on kafir 
and alfalfa hay. For each 100 pounds gained by 
the hogs fed kafir alone, the hogs fed kafir and 
alfalfa hay gained 173 pounds. Sweet clover 
and Spanish peanut hay will take the place of 
alfalfa. When nothing else is available, juicy 
sorghum hay saves grain and improves the con- 
dition of the hogs. 

Alfalfa or sweet clover pasture should be fur- 
nished every pig on a dry land farm, one to two 
acres for each sow and her pigs. Until the new 
settler can get these crops started he can use 
winter rye sown in the spring, dwarf essex rape, 
sown as early as the land can be worked, and 
sorghum. 

Hogs need more mineral matter than dry land 
feeds supply. In timbered regions wood ashes 
supply this need, but are a curiosity on dry land 
farms. Soft coal is profitable for this purpose. 
Dump it in a dry place in the feed lots and let 
the hogs eat it at will. A mixture of soft coal, 
fifty pounds, common salt, two an one-half 



ROCK ISLAND LINES 



13 



pounds, and sulphate of iron, three pounds, kept 
in a shallow box where the rain cannot reach it, 
is a good tonic to keep before the hogs. 

A hog pushed for large gains will eat a pound 
of soft coal a day and he will thrive in propor- 
tion to the coal he eats, provided he is being 
properly fed. 




GOOD hens, like good dairy cows, are sure 
producers in dry land farming sections and 
should be one of the important sources of 
revenue. A skillful poultryman on a dry land 
farm can realize $2 a year a hen above the cost 
of feed. Yet on the majority of dry land farms 
there is not enough eggs and poultry produced 
to give the family all it wants, and most dry land 
farmers claim that chickens "eat their heads off." 

The layers in the average flock consist of a 
number of early-hatched pullets and a few year- 
ling hens. Besides these there are a number of 
old hens, some of whom ceased to lay years ago, 
several long-spurred old roosters and a lot of ac- 
tive young cockerels. Such a flock with fair at- 
tention will average 60 eggs a year per hen. Get 
rid of all the flock but the choicest early hatched 
pullets and the heavy laying hens. The average 
will increase to 120 eggs a year a hen and the 
feed bill will be cut in half. 

Pullets from good egg laying strains will begin 
to lay when six months old if they have been 




Spanish Peanut Plant. 

pushed for growth and development and given 
plenty of exercise and comfortable surroundings. 
Such pullets hatched in March or April will start 
to lay in October and will supply the eggs for 
the high priced fall and winter markets. Tear 
old hens begin to lay in December and should be 
laying well in January. 



Males should not be allowed at any time with 
the hens except when the eggs are to be used for 
hatching. The hens will lay more eggs and pro- 
duce them at less cost without males than with 
them. At the New York Experiment Station pul- 
lets without a male produced eggs at thirty per 
cent less cost than pullets kept with a cockerel. 
Infertile eggs do not spoil in warm weather. 

SHELTER. 

The general management of the hen to make 
her lay is the same in the dry land districts as 
in the rain belt, with one marked exception, that 
of shelter. People in the dry land districts boast 
that no matter how hot it gets in the day time, 
they have to sleep under blankets at night. This 
shows a wide change of temperature every 
twenty-four hours between the hottest time of 
the day and the coldest in the night. In some 
districts the average change for each twenty-four 
hours is thirty degrees. This extreme change 
causes draughts with eastern methods of venti- 
lating poultry houses. One of the sources of 
heaviest loss comes from injury to the fowls from 
these draughts — colds, roup and poor laying. 

To prevent draughts the dry land hen house 
should be built tight on the north side, both ends 
and the roof. The only openings will then be 
on the south side, and draughts are not possible 
with openings on one side only. Through a cold 
winter Prof. W. E. Vaplon had hens thrive in 
northern Colorado, at an altitude of one mile, 
in houses with the south front made of wire net- 
ting, but there was not even the smallest hole 
in the other sides, the ends or the roof. 

The south front must have sufficient openings 
to furnish a constant change of pure air without 
draught. The air is so dry in the dry land dis- 
tricts that severe cold is felt but little and it is 
easy to make a hen house warm enough. It may 
be made of straw packed between boards, adobe 
or lumber. 

GRAIN. 

Kafir or milo is the staple poultry feed in dry 
land districts, supplemented with wheat, oats, 
millet and Spanish peanuts. In cold weather it 
pays to warm the grain in the oven before feed- 
ing. 

GREEN FEED. 

Alfalfa hay is the best green feed for winter. 
Sweet clover hay carefully cured is good. Every 
one who has reported says that silage makes a 
large increase in the number of eggs laid during 
the winter. Beets, mangels and cabbage are rel- 
ished. Rye or wheat pasture is greatly liked in 
the winter. A hen should have all the green feed 
she will eat every day in the year. 

Meat in some form every day is necessary to 
secure profits. Many new settlers in the South- 



14 



DRY LAND FARMING IN THE SOUTHWEST 



west trap the numerous rabbits and feed the 
meat from them to the hens. When a hen has 
plenty of grain, grit and lime in shells, she is not 
likely to eat too much meat if she has a daily 
supply of it. When hens have gone a long time 
without meat they may ruin themselves perma- 
nently and never afterwards lay again if given 
too much at first. A farmer's cow broke her 
leg. She was killed immediately and skinned 
and the carcass drawn into the poultry yard. The 
hens had been without meat for months and 
gorged themselves. Some of them died, others 
were sick and none of the flock ever laid well 
afterwards. 

Water. — A dozen fair sized eggs contain a pint 
of water, and large quantities of water are con- 
stantly being used in the digestion of food and 
the performance of active life. 

Water is in ceaseless demand in the hen's body 



supply lime cheaply. A hen needs about four 
pounds a .year. In some sections crushed lime- 
stone can be used to supply both grit and lime. 

The hen house should be kept clean and the 
hens free from lice and mites. Many dry land 
houses are not cleaned oftener than once a year 
and the owners find that hens do not pay. Dust, 
convenient for a dust bath, whenever a hen 
wants one, will keep down the lice. Take a quart 
of kerosene and crush moth balls in it as long as 
they will dissolve. Use the mixture to paint the 
posts and nests. The heat from the hen's bodies 
will vaporize this paint and the vapor will kill 
the mites. This mixture is very explosive. It 
must be made out of doors and kept from all ex- 
posed flame, as lighted matches and pipes. The 
hen house should be given an extra cleaning 
twice a year and whitewashed, the whitewash 
having a little crude carbolic acid added. 




Pork from Milo Fattened Hogs. 



and is as essential as feed. Many well fed hens 
do not lay because they do not have the water 
necessary in the formation of the egg. Lack of 
water is the chief cause of hens on the farm 
not laying in the winter. 

Water must be clean, pure and palatable and 
within reach of the hen whenever she wants it. 
She will not drink enough if the water is luke- 
warm in the summer or when it is mixed with 
ice in the winter. 

Grit. — Grit is the hen's teeth and it must be 
sharp. Often hens kept on stony places must be 
fed grit because the pieces of local stone are so 
rounding that they do not grind the feed well. 

Lime. — The egg shell is nearly pure carbonate 
of lime and lime is found in most of the tissues 
of the body. It is as absolutely necessary to 
the hen as air or feed. Crushed oyster shells 



The dry land farmer usually neglects the poul- 
try. It will pay him to make a business of tak- 
ing care of his chickens every day just the same 
as he makes a business of milking his cows. A 
hundred laying hens taken care of as recom- 
mended in this article will bring more money in 
a year than the farmer in the western third of 
Kansas gets from the average 50 acres of wheat. 

The farmer new to careful poultry work should 
start with twenty-five hens of a laying strain. 
In a year he should learn how to handle 100 
hens profitably. At the beginning of the third 
year he should be able to handle 200 and get $2 
a year from each above the cost of feed. Even 
with 100 hens, the addition of $200 to the cash 
income of the farm makes it worth while to spend 
a little time each day in good care. The hens 
will lay, no matter how severe the drought. 



ROCK ISLAND LINES 



15 



SACRAMENTO 

CAL. 

12 3 4 




Chart Showing Comparative Monthly Distribution of Rainfall. 



The Climate 



TO be successful the dry land farmer should 
adopt a system of farming that with his 
climatic conditions will furnish a comfor- 
table living in the most unfavorable seasons. He 
will then make good profits in the average and 
the best years. 

The farmer who is located in a dry farming 
district and the man who wants to become a dry- 
land farmer, should study very carefully the cli- 
matic conditions, as they determine, very largely, 
the system of farming to be adopted, the methods 
of handling the soil and the crops to be raised. 
The study of these conditions should be thorough. 
Much of the information needed may be secured 
by applying to the U. S. Weather Bureau, Wash- 
ington, D. C. 

The conditions to consider are (1) average an- 
nual precipitation, (2) the variations from the 
average, (3) the distribution of the rainfall 
throughout the year, (4) evaporation, (5) tem- 
perature, summer and winter, and the length of 
the growing season. 

AVERAGE ANNUAL PRECIPITATION. 

The average annual precipitation in eastern 
Colorado varies in different localities from 



twelve to nineteen inches, in Western Kansas 
from sixteen to twenty-four inches, in Western 
Oklahoma from twenty-four to thirty inches, in 
the Panhandle of Oklahoma from sixteen to 
twenty inches, in Eastern New Mexico from thir- 
teen to sixteen inches, and in the Texas Panhan- 
dle from eighteen to twenty-five inches. The av- 
erage annual rainfall in all these dry land dis- 
tricts is ample to produce profitable yields of 
feed crops and with good management, good 
yields of grain. The capable dry land farmer can 
raise fair crops when the rainfall through the 
year is ten to twelve inches, provided it is fa- 
vorably distributed. 

VARIATIONS FROM THE AVERAGE 
PRECIPITATIONS. 

The hindrance to success in dry land farming 
comes from the wide variations in the annual 
precipitations. The records of the precipitation 
in Denver, Colo., have been kept for 42 years 
and the average is 14.31 inches a year. If this 
had been uniform through this period it would 
have been an easy matter to have raised profitable 
crops every year. In 1909 the precipitation was 
twenty-three inches and in 1911 was 7.75 inches. 
The failures in dry land farming come from a, 
lack of ability to operate a system of farming 
that will adapt itself to these wide variations, 
where the margin of safety is so narrow. 



20 








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Annual Rainfall, Denver, Colorado. 



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1905 06 07 08 19 10 11 12 13 



Annual Rainfall, 
Tucumcari, New Mexico. 



16 



DRY LAND FARMING IN THE SOUTHWEST 



32 



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Annual Rainfall, Amarillo, Texas. 

The average precipitation at Colby, Kans., is 
17.76 inches. In 1904 the precipitation was 23.73 
inches ; in 1910, 6.62 inches ; in 1911, 10.55 inches. 
The dry years broke the man who grew wheat 
only. There were good feed crops every year. 

The precipitation at Tucumcari, N. M., in 1905 
was twenty-four inches and the new settlers 
raised good crops of corn. The rainfall dropped 
to sixteen inches the next year, and the precipita- 
tion in 1909 was only 10.33 inches. A large num- 
ber of farmers lost all they had because they 
thought 1905 was an average year and they kept 
on trying to raise crops that required the heavy 
rainfall. 

The average annual precipitation at Amarillo, 
Texas, is twenty-two and one half inches. In 
1905 it was 32.33 inches. The next year it was 
above normal and thousands of farmers rushed 
to that district to get rich raising grain. Then 
came four dry years, the precipitation in 1910 
dropping to eleven inches. The majority of the 
new settlers conducted farming operations on 
the basis of the heavy rainfall of 1905. Large 
numbers of them failed, lost all they had and left 
the country. Feed crops yielded abundantly 
every year except one and the silos carried the 
farmers who raised feed crops over the dry year. 
Every year since that country was first settled 
good profits have been made from livestock and 
feed crops have failed but once when handled 
rightly. 

Throughout the Southwest the rainfall is suf- 
ficient to not only furnish the farmers a com- 
fortable living, but will enable them to make 
fair profits above their living if they will follow 
the system of farming and the methods adapted 
to the years of low rainfall. 

The constant tendency, of course, is to hope 
each year as it comes will be one with favorable 
conditions. In wet years the dry land promoters 
hold forth that the seasons have changed, that 
the rainfall follows the plow and that there will 
be no more droughts. The long period through 
which the rainfall records have been kept at 



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1896 99190OOI 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 II 12 13 

Annual Rainfall, Colby, Kansas. 

some dry land points, show that settlement and 
cultivation have caused no change whatever in 
the rainfall. There are seasons of heavy rainfall 
and others of light rainfall now, just as there 
were forty to seventy years ago. The valley of 
the Nile has been cultivated for 6,000 years with 
no effect toward increasing the rainfall. 

DISTRIBUTION OF RAINFALL THROUGH 
THE YEAR. 

A study of the diagram will show that about 
cnree-fourths of the rainfall in the dry land dis- 
tricts of the Southwest occur chiefly in the spring 
and summer months, the fall and winter months 
are dry. This condition makes sure those crops 
which are planted in the spring, and cultivated, 
such as kafir, milo, sorghum and Spanish peanuts. 
The dry falls and winters make the growing of 
winter wheat uncertain and frequently the rains 
come too late in the spring to start spring grain. 

The sure crops under this distribution of rain- 
fall are feed crops that furnish both silage and 
grain. The dry winters make dry feed lots and 
the dry, crisp winter air gives a zest to the appe- 
tites of all farm animals. It seems that nature 
has planned conditions in the Southwest for a 
money making livestock country. 

The distribution of rainfall through the year 
at The Dalles, Ore., and Sacramento, Cal., is 
shown. In the Pacific coast districts the rainfall 
occurs almost entirely during the winter months. 
In the inter-mountain districts the rainfall comes 
during the winter and spring and the summers 
are dry. On account of these peculiar conditions 
of rainfall, a system of wheat growing through 
the aid of summer fallowing has had an extensive 
development in Utah and in some of the north- 
west districts of the Pacific coast. The land is 
plowed in the fall and absorbs the winter and 
spring rains. It is well tilled in the summer and 
in the fall sown to wheat. The moisture held by 
the summer tillage brings up the wheat and 
the winter and spring rains make it mature be- 
fore the summer drought. 



ROCK ISLAND LINES 



17 



This method of wheat growing in alternate 
years by summer tillage is mentioned because 
eight or ten years ago it was strongly advocated 
for the Southwest. It was given many trials in 
the dry land farming districts in all the south- 
western states and proved a failure. Even now 
the summer fallowing methods used in Utah are 
often recommended to new settlers in the South- 
west by men who are not acquainted with the 
failures of the past and the difference in the dis- 
tribution of the rainfall. The summer fallowing 
methods of Utah and the Pacific coast, when fol- 
lowed in the Southwest, fail to save much of the 
summer moisture because of the high winds and 
temperature, unless cultivation is given after 
every shower, and this makes the soil so fine 
that in a short time it blows as deeply as it was 
plowed. 

EVAPORATION. 

The evaporation of moisture from the soil in 
dry land districts of the Southwest is heavy and 
has a strong effect in reducing the effects of the 
rainfall. No accurate method of measurir.j this 
evaporation is in use, but the comparative evap- 
oration of different districts is determined by 
measuring the amount of water evaporated from 
an exposed surface of water during the growing 
season, April 1st to September 30th. The evap- 
oration in inches during the growing season in 
eastern Colorado is forty-five; northwest Kansas, 
forty-five ; southwest Kansas, sixty ; the Pan- 
handle of Texas, fifty-four. In northern Ohio the 
evaporation is twenty-five inches and in southern 
Wisconsin, twenty-seven. While the evaporation 
from the soil is much less, these figures show the 
strong force of evaporation with which the dry 
land farmer has to contend and the necessity of 
thorough work to hold the moisture in the soil. 

Evaporation increases southward. Experts es- 
timate that with each increase of three inches in 
evaporation, an additional inch of rainfcjl is 
necessary to secure equal results in crop produc- 
tion. On this basis a rainfall of fifteen inches in 
Colorado would be equal to eighteen inches in 
the Panhandle. 

TEMPERATURE— SUMMER AND WINTER. 

The dry land farming districts of the South- 
west have much sunshine, cloudy days are few in 
winter, the air is crisp and dry. In summer the 
days are warm, but the nights, almost without 
exception, are cool. The dryness of the air and 
the intense sunlight during the winter makes the 
cold felt much less than in districts having hu- 
mid air. 

The result is that on an average there are more 
than 300 days each year when it is comfortable 
to work outdoors. The only annoying feature is 
the high winds during the spring, and in drought 
years during the fall. Snowfall is usually light. 
The average monthly temperature in Denver is, 
in January, 31 degrees ; July, 71.9 degrees ; Colby, 
Kans., January, 28.9 degrees; July, 75.2 degrees; 



Beaver, Okla., January, 33.2 degrees; July, 80.3 
degrees; Amarillo, Tex., January, 33.9 degrees; 
July, 76.1 degrees ; and in Tucumcari, N. M., Jan- 
uary, 31 degrees, and July, 68.3 degrees. 

LENGTH OF CROP GROWING SEASON. 

The average length of the crop growing season, 
as determined by the average of the latest and 
earliest dates of killing frosts, is 140 days in 
northeast Colorado, 150 days in southeast Colo- 
rado, 150 to 180 days in western Kansas — the 
first figure being for the northwest part of the 
state and the second for the southwest. In the 
Panhandle the average is 180 days in the north- 
ern part, increasing southward to 200 days. 



Holding the Rainfall 



AS the dry land farmer canuot change the 
rainfall, it is necessary to accumulate as 
" much of it as he can in the soil for the use 
of his crops. The chief losses of rainfall in the 
dry land districts are from the run off during 
storms and from evaporation. The two tillage 
problems ever facing the dry land farmer are to 
keep his soil in such condition that it will absorb 
much of the precipitation as it falls and then to 
keep the surface soil in such a state as to retard 
evaporation. 

The average rainfall in the Southwest is suffi- 
cient to produce good yields of dry land crops, 
and it is the dry land farmer's business to handle 
his soil in such a way that he gradually accumu- 
lates sufficient moisture to keep the soil moist 
in dry years to a depth of four to six feet, and 
in years of good rainfall to a depth of twelve to 
fifteen feet. 

The accumulation of moisture to this extent 
equalizes the effect of the great variations in 
yearly rainfall. The stored moisture in the soil 
acting as a reserve in dry years, the same as a 
bank deposit is a reserve for a business man. 

It is practicable to handle dry land soils in 
such a way that half of the actual precipitation 
is absorbed and stored in them. After this has 
been accomplished, crop failures become rare. It 
may take several seasons to secure this storage 
when team power and capital are light. 

Deep plowing or deep listing is the most effec- 
tive way of insuring the storage of the rainfall. 
Many of the rains in the dry land districts are 
heavy and dashing. On the unplowed prairie 
most of the water that falls in such rains runs 
off immediately into the draws and creeks. Land 
plowed shallow will absorb some of the water 
that falls in a driving rain; land plowed deeply 
will absorb more. Land plowed four inches deep 
has only half the capacity of absorbing quickly 
the rainfall as land plowed to a depth of eight 
inches. 

Many of the farmers who read this article will 
start their dry land farming operations on un- 
plowed prairie land. How deep shall they plow? 



18 



DRY LAND FARMING IN THE SOUTHWEST 



Where the man has sufficient power and can 
stand the expense, I would advise using a Spauld- 
ing deep tilling machine that will plow and pul- 
verize the soil the first time to a depth of sixteen 
to eighteen inches. Very few farmers can stand 
the expense of such a first preparation. Good 
judgment consists of doing the most effective 
work with the power and money available. 

The average man will have three good horses 
and not much money. I would advise him to 
break the sod first time two to four inches deep, 
and cut it up thoroughly with a disc harrow. 
Plant kafir, milo and cane on this shallow plowed 
sod. The next season break or list the land a 
couple of inches deeper and the third season stir 
it two or three inches deeper than in the second 
year. In this way the soil can be gradually 
stirred deeper and deeper without excessive cost 
and better water storage be secured each year. 

A large part of the moisture absorbed by the 
soil is lost by evaporation from the surface un- 
less some means are taken to prevent this loss. 
The sun and winds carry off the moisture from 
the surface. As the surface soil dries, the moist- 
ure from the lower soil is lifted gradually upward 
and in its turn is evaporated unless prevented. 

Where the surface soil is stirred and kept loose 
to a depth of two to four inches, this evaporation 
is largely checked. The loose soil acting as a 
blanket or mulch to prevent the moisture in the 
soil below from escaping. 

When a crust is formed the surface is made 
compact and the soil moisture evaporates rapidly. 
In a field after grain has been cut, the soil is 
hard on the surface and often moisture equal to 
one inch of rainfall is lost through this hard 
surface every week during the hot weather. 
When a disc harrow follows the binder, the sur- 
face soil is loosened and a mulch is formed that 
checks this evaporation to a great extent. 

It was once generally advised to cultivate or 
harrow the soil from early spring until fall after 
each rain in order to keep a crust from forming 
and to keep the surface soil loose enough to form 
a mulch or blanket. This system has been found 
to be dangerous. The level surface and the fine- 
ness of the particles made by repeated harrow- 
ings make the soil easily moved by winds. Thou- 
sands of acres in the Southwest and tens of thou- 
sands of acres on the Pacific coast have had all 
the soil blown off as deeply as it was plowed be- 
cause the surface soil had been kept too smooth 
and fine. In many cases the blowing did not 
stop when the depth of plowing has been 
reached, but kept on moving the raw, smooth sub- 
soil. The surface of cultivated dry land soil must 
be kept corrugated and rough. 

The principle is the same as that governing the 
flowing of water in mountain streams. In the 
mountains of Colorado are trout streams so swift 
that a man cannot hold his arm perpendicular in 
the water. At the bottom of these streams fish 
may be seen lazily moving upstream. It seems 
wonderful that a fish can be so powerfully 



muscled that he can swim slowly against a cur- 
rent so swift and strong that a man cannot resist 
it with his arm. When these streams are meas- 
ured to ascertain the amount of water they will 
supply for irrigation, the measuring shows that 
the water near the surface and just below it- 'is 
moving very swiftly, but that the water at the 
bottom of the stream where the fish are moving 
is almost still. The friction of the stones along 
the bottom has checked the current until the wa- 
ter barely moves. While the dry dry land farmer 
cannot stop the speed of the winds, he can check 
their movement and destroy their effect at the 
surface of the soil by leaving the surface rough 
or deeply corrugated. The dry land farmer should 
keep the surface of his cultivated fields rough 
and corrugated at all times when a crop is not 
growing on them. 




Potatoes — A Good Dry Land Crop. 

THE LISTER. 

The lister is one of the best implements for 
keeping the soil rough so that it will not blow, 
and for putting the ground in condition for accu- 
mulating and holding the moisture. As soon as 
a grain or forage crop is removed from the land 
in summer or any crop in the fall, the field should 
be disked immediately. Then as soon as prac- 
ticable the land should be listed deeply. The 
listed rows should not be more than three and 
one-half feet between centers. Three heavy 
horses with a single lister can cover eight acres 
a day. 

The deeper the lister is run, the better. When 
run deeply it throws the land into sharp ridges, 
and this stops the movement of the soil by the 
winds. The loose dirt that is thrown by the 
lister on the ridges acts as an efficient mulch to 
hold the moisture. 

The land should be listed early in the fall and 
kept ridged as listed through the winter. The 
snow will accumulate in the furrows and as it 
melts will sink deeply in the ground and be held 
there. With the average amount of snow, prac- 
tically all the moisture in it will be held in the 
listed furrows. Where the surface is level, the 
greater proportion of the snow is blown off of the 
cultivated land. Deep furrows hold the water 



ROCK ISLAND LINES 



19 



that falls in the autumn and spring rains until 
it is absorbed by the soil. 

When the winter and spring are unusually dry, 
the land may be left in the spring just as it is and 
the seed planted in the furrows. Even in ex- 
tremely dry years the listed furrows will contain 
sufficient moisture to make such seeds as kafir, 
milo and sorghum germinate quickly and make a 
good early growth. 

In seasons of ordinary rainfall, the listed fur- 
rows should be run over lengthwise early in the 
spring with a disc harrow and at planting time 
the ground should be relisted, splitting the 
ridges. 

When it is desired to summer fallow the land, 
it can be listed early in the spring, and then al- 
ternately be harrowed and disked often enough 
to keep a crust from forming. When the listing 
is done early in the spring and the seeding is 
to be late, it sometimes pays to relist in midsum- 
mer, splitting the ridges. 

In cultivating crops planted in the bottom of 
listed furrows, the cultivator shovels should be 
set to run deep the first two cultivations and to 
throw but little dirt against the plants. Later 
cultivations should be shallow. The lister fur- 
rows should be filled gradually so that at the last 
cultivation the surface of the land will be level. 
Most dry land farmers "lay by" their crops too 
early. Shallow cultivation should continue until 
the heads or ears form. Often a shallow cultiva- 
tion with a one-horse cultivator at the time kafir 
or milo is heading will break the crust, stop evap- 
oration from the soil and add ten bushels an acre 
to the yield. 

When oats, millet or other sown crops are to 
be put in, the lister furrows should be leveled 
with a cultivator or disc harrow before seeding. 



The Crops to Grow 



THE sure feed crops to grow in dry land 
districts are kafir, milo, feterita, Sudan 
grass and sorghum, and Spanish peanuts 
where they are acclimated. Sweet clover has 
given good returns where it has been given a 
careful trial. 

Mexican beans make a good cash crop in all 
years and wheat in wet years. When the moist- 
ure conditions of the soil are favorable in the 
spring, early oats make a profitable crop, espe- 
cially when cut for hay. Eye in most seasons 
makes fair winter pasture and when spring con- 
ditions are favorable will furnish one to two tons 
of hay an acre after being pastured. 

CORN. 

Corn is not a dry land crop except on the Ar- 
kansas Divide and in protected mountain districts 
at an altitude of 5,000 to 6,000 feet. Corn on the 
plains usually does well when well cultivated 
until it begins to tassel. The hot, dry winds kill 



the pollen, no kernels are formed and the crop is 
a failure. About once in every four to seven 
years conditions are favorable at tasseling time 
and a good yield is secured. Then the land 
agents cover the country to get photographs 
of as many good fields of corn as possible and lay 
in a sufficient stock of good ears for exhibition to 
last through the poor seasons. 

On the Arkansas Divide, east of Colorado 
Springs, a local variety of corn has been devel- 
oped that is a reliable crop at altitudes of 5,000 to 
6,000 feet. The stock is short and has few leaves, 
making the moisture requirements low. The ear 
is borne close to the ground. In extremely dry 
years, the shank holding the ear often starts just 
above the surface of the soil. This corn is well 
adapted to altitudes so high as to be too cold 
for kafir and milo. 

In the narrow protected valleys on the eastern 
slope of the Rocky Mountains, seed from Ne- 
braska and Kansas is planted. It makes a heavy 
growth and reaches the right stage for silage be- 
fore frost. The Modern Woodmen of America 
have a sanitarium and farm eleven miles from 
Colorado Springs. The farm is at an altitude of 
6,000 feet. There were 100 acres of Nebraska 
corn planted on it in 1913. The yield was ten 
tons per acre of green forage. 

THE KAFIRS. 

The permanent prosperity of a large part of 
the Southwest is dependent upon the intelligent 
raising and feeding of the kafirs — kafir, milo and 
feterita. There have been only two failures of 
kafir in twenty-five years in Kansas and only one 
failure in twenty years in Oklahoma. The fail- 
ure in 1913 was due chiefly to the use of degen- 
erate seed and too thick planting. Many of the 
farmers who planted well bred seed not too thick- 
ly secured good yields of grain, while their neigh- 
bors raised fodder only. 

Kafir can be recommended as the staple feed 
grain for districts having an annual rainfall of 
twenty-four inches or upward, and dwarf milo 
for districts where the average, rainfall is six- 
teen to twenty-four inches. Feterita has not been 
tested long enough to determine positively where 
it will be profitable as a main crop. The indica- 
tions are that it is adapted to sections having less 
than an average of sixteen inches of rainfall a 
year. 

The year 1911 was so dry that thirteen counties 
in Kansas produced no corn. Kafir gave a fair 
yield in every one of these countries. The aver- 
age returns per acre for the state were : Corn, 
$7.67; kafir, $15.72. Had the corn growers of 
Kansas planted kafir instead of corn, they would 
have been better off in the fall by $62,000,000. 

In 1912 the farmers of Kansas raised the larg- 
est yield of corn per acre that they had obtained 
in six years. The average value per acre of corn 
for the state was $12.12 ; that of kafir, $13.80. 

Kafir made a low average yield in 1913, the 
second time in Kansas in twenty-five years and 



20 



DRY LAND FARMING IN THE SOUTHWEST 



the first time in Oklahoma in twenty years. Yet 
the value of kafir raised in Kansas was $12,324,- 
131, and of Milo, $1,189,643, a total of $13,513,774. 
This is $134,299 more than the value of the corn 
crop of the state, and there was more than five 
times as much land planted to corn as to kafir 
and milo. 

In an eight year test at the Oklahoma Experi- 
ment Station, Central Oklahoma, kafir produced 
per acre two and a half times as much grain as 
corn and more than twice the meat producing 
value. 

VALUE OF KAFIR FOR FEED. 

Ten bushels of kafir have the same feeding 
value as nine bushels of corn, for feeding work 
horses and mules, growing colts and mules, beef 
and dairy cattle, both young and fattening, and 
mature, hogs and sheep. A bushel of kafir is 
worth more than a bushel of corn for feeding 
poultry. Milo has the same feeding value as 
kafir. At the Kansas Experiment Station, in an 
eleven year test, kafir produced an average yield 
of grain sufficient to produce, per acre, 487 
pounds of pork. Corn produced an average yield 
per acre sufficient to produce 410 pounds of pork. 

The Kansas Agricultural College, by a three 
year feeding test with both beef and dairy cattle, 
demonstrated that, pound for pound, silage made 
from corn, from kafir and from sorghum have 
equal feeding values, provided each is cut at the 
proper stage of maturity, and that the choice of 
which of these crops should be planted for silage 
depends on which will probably produce the 
greatest tonnage per acre. Over a large part of 
the Southwest, kafir will produce a heavier yield 
than corn. Sorghum will yield more than kafir. 

In planting kafir, the black hulled white is the 
best variety to plant. The dwarf milo should 
be planted on the plains. No distinct varieties 
of feterita have been developed, but there are 
many white seeded sorghums sold for feterita, 
and these should be avoided. 

Dwarf kafir has been grown by several of the 
plains experiment stations the past two or three 
years, and the results indicate that it may take 
the place of both milo and feterita as the staple 
feed grain for districts in the Southwest having 
less than twenty-four inches of rainfall yearly. 
Dwarf kafir is as early as either milo or feterita. 
On this account it requires moisture for thirty 
days shorter season than the standard kafir. Its 
heads grow upright, so that it is easily harvested 
by machinery. It is low in height, requiring a 
minimum of moisture for growing stalk. The 
stalk is thick and short-jointed, withstanding 
heavy winds well. It shatters little, allowing at 
least three months' time in which to harvest it 
after the heads have ripened. 

THE SEED. 

The best yields of kafir, milo and feterita are 
produced from choice, home grown seed. Where 



this cannot be secured, seed should be obtained 
from as near home as possible. 

The character of the stalk has a strong in- 
fluence on yield. Seed from good heads, grown 
on plants of medium height, with thick, short- 
jointed stalks, will produce one-third higher yield 
than seed from good heads grown on tall stalks 
with long joints. 

A field of well-bred kafir, on good soil, shows 
the plants of even size almost as if cut to meas- 
ure. The stalks are stocky and the joints short 
and the heads long and uniform in appearance. 
This type withstands the winds and waits long 
for harvesting without the stalks blowing down. 
Seed should be selected from fields that show 
this good breeding and from plants uniform in' 
height and type. 

The center or main stem on which the head is 
formed should extend well toward the tip, usu- 
ally to within three inches or less of the extreme 
end of the tip. This is the most important indi- 
cation of a high yielding strain. If the center 
stem lacks length the head should be rejected, 
no matter how good the other characters. 

In "run out" strains of kafir, where the yield 
is low, it is often found that the center stem ex- 
tends but half way or little more between the 
base of the head and the tip. With the degener- 
ate type, a thick bunch of seed stems start out 
from the end of the main stem, making a loose 
or fluffy head. Reject for seed every head in 
which the center main stem is short. 

Kafir crosses with the sweet sorghums, with 
broom corn, milo, feterita and the so-called Egyp- 
tian corn or desert wheat. These crosses produce 
a mongrel strain of kafir that cannot be made to 
yield a heavy crop. Kafir with sprangly or loose, 
open and fluffy heads is the result of such crosses. 

Seed from the right type of head will produce 
sixty to eighty bushels per acre, where under the 
same treatment seed from the wrong kind of 
head will produce but fifteen to twenty bushels 
per acre. 

There is a difference of three weeks in the 
ripening of different heads of kafir and milo in 
the same field. In a severe season a difference of 
five days in ripening sometimes makes the differ- 
ence between a good yield and failure. The 
grower should watch his fields closely as soon as 
the first heads appear and mark by a string or 
piece of cloth each desirable early head. The 
selected heads should remain on the stalks until 
the crop is ripe, when a man can go through the 
field with a sack and gather the marked heads. 

Special attention must be given to the vitality 
of feterita seed. It heats worse than kafir. With 
ordinary care in keeping not over one-half the 
feterita seeds will grow. 

Keep the seed in the head until the day it is 
planted. Hang up the heads, as soon as they are 
ripe, in a place where they will be left dry and 
where air will circulate around each head. 



ROCK ISLAND LINES 



21 




Windmill Irrigation on a Dry Land Farm. 



A farmer in southern Kansas bought choice 
kafir seed and tested it just before planting. It 
germinated well. He had planted part of a large 
field when he saw a rain coming. He took the 
seed not planted to the house and put it in a dry 
room before any rain fell. In about a week the 
rain was over and the ground dry enough to 
plant. The remainder of the field was planted, 
the same machine was used and the rest of the 
seed dropped. The seed planted before the rain 
gave a full stand. The seed planted after the 
rain did not give one-fourth of a full stand. Al- 
though kept in a sack in a dry room, it absorbed 
enough moisture to make it heat sufficiently to 
kill its germinating powers. 

During the germinating period the seed ab- 
sorbs moisture and begins to heat very easily. 
Sometimes the heating is sufficient to weaken the 
vitality only, but not to kill the seed. When this 
is the case, the growth is weak and uneven. Very 
often the heating is sufficient to kill the life in the 
seed, and no stand at all is secured. 

Seed that shows strong germination may be 
kept in a dry place and yet heat sufficiently in 
twenty-four to forty-eight hours to make it unfit 
for planting. For this reason it is safest to keep 
the seed in the head until the day of planting, 
each morning threshing out enough for the day's 
planting. 

There are two easy ways of threshing kafir 
seed. Place a head on a board placed across a 
wash tub and scratch off about half the seed with 
a curry comb. The seeds that shell off the most 
readily are the ripest, strongest seeds to plant. 



Rub a head on a wash board. Most of the good 
seed will come off quickly. Seed threshed by 
either of these methods can be cleaned easily and 
graded by a fanning mill or can be thrown up in 
a wind that will blow away the chaff. 

PLANTING. 

On the plains it is advisable to list in the fall 
the land that is to be planted in the spring. In 
seasons of dry winters and springs the lister fur- 
rows will collect all the moisture that comes 
from the snow and rain and the winds will keep 
enough loose soil in the bottoms of the furrows 
to make a soil mulch that will hold this moisture. 
If the ground is very dry at planting time the 
seed may be planted in the bottom of the furrow. 
Even in extremely dry seasons there will be suffi- 
cient moisture in this old furrow to bring up the 
plants quickly and for a rapid early growth. 
When there is a good supply of moisture in the 
spring the lister ridges should be split and the 
seed planted in the new furrow. 

Test the seed for germination before planting 
and do not plant any seed in which less than 
ninety seeds out of each 100 grow. Use two to 
three pounds of good seed an acre in sections 
having thirty inches average rainfall and about 
two pounds per acre where the precipitation is 
less. Make the distance between the rows three 
and one-half feet. 

In central Kansas and Oklahoma, one stalk to 
each eight inches will usually give the large 
yield of kafir. In western Kansas and Oklahoma 
the stalks should be twelve to sixteen inches 



22 



DRY LAND FARMING IN THE SOUTHWEST 



apart to secure the most grain. At the Govern- 
ment experiment station, Amarillo, in the Texas 
Panhandle, the best yields of milo have been ob- 
tained by having the stalks seven to eight inches 
apart in the rows. The average annual rainfall 
is twenty-two inches. In districts having less 
rainfall, thinner planting is advisable. At Tu- 
cumcari, New Mexico, good yields of feterita 
were secured in a dry year with plants ten inches 
apart in the row. 

The lister or planter should be set up on blocks 
and the different gears and plates tested until a 
combination is found that will drop single grains 
in a place and not over twice as many to the foot 
as there should be plants. Cleaning and grading 
the seed will help to secure even planting. 

CULTIVATION. 

The kafirs should have thorough cultivation. 
They seldom receive it. A large proportion of 
the growers of Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas give 
the ground little attention before planting, plant 
any time convenient, regardless of moisture con- 
ditions of soil and give less than half enough 
cultivation. It is surprising even to those well 
acquainted with the hardiness of these crops that 
so good yields are secured. 

The kafirs should be cultivated at least once 
after they have reached full height. This culti- 
vation should be so shallow that the little feed 
roots are not injured. 

HARVESTING. 

The most common way to harvest kafir is with 
a corn harvester, cutting the stalks when the 
grain is ripe. The harvester ties the stalks with 
twine into bundles and the bundles are set up 
into large shocks to cure. The common sled cut- 
ter is used where a corn harvester is not avail- 
able. 

"Where the fodder is not particularly desired, 
a header attached to an ordinary wagon box is 
sometimes used. Several growers of kafir in 
northwest Oklahoma harvest the heads with the 
regular wheat header, raising the platform up to 
the highest possible point. Three rows are gath- 
ered at a time, the headings being carried as fast 
as topped into the regular header barges. In 
these they are taken to the stacks. 

A cheap method of separating the heads from 
the stalks is to take the bundles made from the 
corn harvester, let them cure thoroughly in the 
shock. When ready for heading place a heavy 
log across the top of a wagon box ; lay the heads 
on the log and cut them from the stalks with a 
broad axe. Two men can head kafir very rapidly 
in this way, one takin'g the bundles from the 
shock and placing the heads on the log and the 
other standing in the wagon and chopping off the 
heads. 

Another good way is to cut the heads off with 
a knife, letting the stalks stand. 



STORING KAFIR. 

Kafir should be headed after the grain has be- 
come thoroughly ripe and dry. Kafir heads may 
he stored in corn cribs the same as corn in the 
ear. Any time during the fall or winter, after 
the grain has passed through the sweat, it may 
be threshed. The grain, as soon as threshed, 
should be cleaned thoroughly, as dirt and trash 
make it heat quickly as soon as it reaches a damp 
climate. 

Threshed kafir, no matter how thoroughly 
dried, is likely to heat when stored in bins, when- 
ever the weather is damp. The heating is par- 
ticularly bad in the spring, during the germinat- 
ing season. 

Kafir that is thoroughly cleaned, with a fan- 
ning mill, so that it is free from trash and dirt, 
can be kept cool more easily than that which is 
mixed with even a little dirt. The dirt and trash 
absorb moisture and hold it and the moisture 
starts heat in kafir in warm weather and mold in 
cold weather. 

FEEDING. 

Ten bushels of kafir have the same feeding 
value as nine bushels of corn for feeding work 
horses, beef and dairy cattle, hogs and sheep. 
Multiply the market price of corn in any locality 
by ninety per cent and the result will be the feed 
value, at that time, in that locality, of kafir. 
Milo and feterita have the same feeding value as 
kafir and should be fed in the same way. 

Kafir is constipating when fed alone and in a 
few weeks will get animals in such a condition 
from constipation that they lose their appetites 
and become unthrifty. Kafir given with a small 
quantity of any laxative feed, such as alfalfa or 
peanut hay, can be fed for months with profitable 
results. 

Horses fed kafir heads will do as much work 
and keep in as good condition as those fed corn. 
Horses do not do well on threshed kafir. They do 
not chew the small grains sufficiently and much 
of the grain passes out with the manure undi- 
gested. 

SORGHUM. 

The sweet sorghums, usually called cane, are 
among our surest dry land hay and pasture crops. 
There are three varieties in general use : Orange, 
early amber and sumac. The orange is the larg- 
est growing variety of the three and is adapted 
to the central districts of Kansas and Oklahoma. 
The early amber is adapted to all the dry land 
district of the Southwest except those having 
twelve inches or less of annual rainfall. The 
sumac has been used to a considerable extent in 
the dryer sections of west Texas. 

There are three methods of seeding — broadcast, 
with a grain drill and in rows to he cultivated. 
The broadcast method is wasteful of seed, but re- 



ROCK ISLAND LINES 



23 




View of Grain Field Near Limon, Colorado. 

quires the least attention and is therefore quite 
common. In districts of thirty inches of rainfall 
or more one bushel of seed per acre is generally 
used when broadcasted, and where there is less 
rainfall, half a bushel. The ground is plowed or 
disked, the seed sown and covered with a harrow. 

When the seed is to be sown with a grain drill, 
the land is prepared the same as for wheat, and 
from one peck to half a bushel of seed is sown 
on each acre, depending on the rainfall. 

The highest yields are secured by planting in 
rows three to three and one-half feet apart, drill- 
ing the seed in the rows and cultivating the same 
as kafir or corn. The ground may be listed shal- 
low. From five to ten pounds of seed are used 
an acre, varying with the rainfall, the less pre- 
cipitation the less seed should be used. 

When intended for hay or pasture, the seeding 
should be done so thickly that the stalks will be 
the size of the little finger and smaller. Sorghum 
may be planted at any time after the danger of 
frost is over until the middle of July, whenever 
the ground contains sufficient moisture to give 
the young plants a vigorous start. 

Sorghum for hay may be cut any time from 
heading out until the seeds get in the milk. When 
planted in drills or rows it may be cut and bound 
into bundles. The bundles are first cured in the 
shock and then stacked in long ricks like grain. 

Drilled or broadcasted sorghum may be cut 
with a mower set rather high so that the stubble 
will hold up the forage and let the air dry out 
the underside. Soon after being mowed it should 
be raked in windrows. After curing for a day 
or two in windrows it should be gathered into 
large cocks holding a wagon load or more. One 
man should make a small stack of each cock, 
placing the forage as it comes from the sweep 
rake so that each forkful will turn rain. Sorghum 
hay will usually keep well through the winter in 
such large cocks. It is well to haul part of the 
sorghum hay to the feed lot and put it in a long 
rick to be convenient for feeding in case of 
storms. 

Sorghum should be cured so as to keep the 



leaves green and the stalk juicy. It should not 
be left out in small windrows until it is bleached. 
Sorghum hay belongs to the same class of feeds 
as corn fodder and prairie hay and cannot take 
the place of alfalfa, sweet clover or Spanish pea- 
nut hay. Its great value is secured when it is 
fed with one of these hays or with a small ration 
of cottonseed meal. 

Sorghum for silage should be planted thinly in 
rows three and one-half feet apart and be thor- 
oughly cultivated. The seeds should be planted 
at the distance apart that will produce the heavi- 
est yield of grain. It should be put into the silo 
when the seeds become so hard that they cannot 
be crushed between the thumb and forefinger, but 
while the leaves and stalks are green. 

If pastures get short in midsummer, sorghum, 
after it gets in full head, makes a pasture that 
will keep cows giving full milk. The cows should 
be well fed, either with dry feed or pasture, be- 
fore being turned on the sorghum. The first day 
they should be allowed on the sorghum only 
thirty minutes; the second day, 45 minutes; the 
third day, an hour. After that, the time may be 
increased thirty minutes each day until it reaches 
three hours, when it is safe to allow the cows on 
the sorghum all the time. 

Sorghum, when it reaches eighteen to twenty- 
four inches in height, is often used for pasture 
for cattle and is usually safe. There is always 
danger, though, that cyanide poison will develop 
in immature sorghum, and this is a deadly poison. 
It is particularly likely to develop in dry seasons 
when the growth is stunted. In such cases I have 
known of cattle breaking into a field and getting 
only a few mouthfuls of the immature sorghum 
and dying in a short time. The poison evaporates 
during the process of curing and the hay is safe. 

Sorghum planted and cultivated to secure the 
largest growth of forage and turned under green 
after the heads have developed is a great im- 
prover of dry land soils. Mr. T. A. Borman, edi- 
tor of the Kansas Farmer, has had a wide experi- 
ence in this line and says that when a dry land 
farmer raises ten acres each year to be plowed 
under, the improvement is so great that in a few 
years the soil seems as though it belonged to an- 
other farm. 



Alfalfa 



ALFALFA is readily grown anywhere in the 
Southwest where the average annual rain- 
- fall is twenty-five inches or more, the chief 
difficulty being to get a stand in unfavorable sea- 
sons. Where the annual rainfall averages less 
than twenty-five inches, the problem is harder. 

There are tens of thousands of acres, even m 
districts having twelve to sixteen inches of rain- 
fall, on which alfalfa will pay well. In eastern 
Colorado there are many "dry" streams in which 
no water runs except after heavy falls of rain. 



24 



DRY LAND FARMING IN THE SOUTHWEST 



Many of these streams have broad valleys in 
which water in abundance may be secured at a 
depth of from five to fifteen feet. Alfalfa on such 
land lives for years, when well started, and pro- 
duces good yields even in dry seasons. 

On uplands, where water is 150 to 200 feet be- 
low the surface, a stand of alfalfa can be secured 
in favorable seasons only. In such locations al- 
falfa grows well in wet years and is at a stand- 
still in dry years. A successful Illinois hog raiser 
located near Dalhart, Texas, on upland where it 
was 180 feet to water. He found that in the dry 
seasons alfalfa would not grow tall enough for 
hay, but that when pastured by hogs it kept 
growing sufficiently to make good pasture. He 
found that in the dryest seasons he could secure 
ample pasture for 300 hogs by having the pasture 
divided and changing the hogs every ten days 
from one division to the other. 

Dry land seed is the first requisite for success 
in raising alfalfa on dry land. Seed raised under 
irrigation is plumper and is of stronger germi- 
nating power, but usually most of the plants die 
within a year when seeded on dry land. The 
farmer in the Southwest should get seed raised 
on dry land in his own district, or get northern 
grown dry land seed from Montana. Utah seed 
was especially adapted to dry land conditions 
until the alfalfa weevil came. Now that seed is 
unsafe. 

Land that is to be seeded to alfalfa must be 
plowed deeply and pulverized as thoroughly as 
for a garden and then allowed to become well 
settled. Previous to this final preparation, it 
should be handled so as to kill all the young 
weeds. Alfalfa fails almost every time it is 
seeded in mellow ground. The soil should be 
moist to a depth of four to six feet. It is a waste 
of time and money to sow alfalfa seed unless the 
soil conditions are right. The dry land farmer 
should get the seed bed in good condition and 
then if he finds there is not sufficient moisture he 
should wait till another season. In one district 
in western Kansas alfalfa has made many farmers 
wealthy. One of the most successful of these men 
tried sowing afalfa for seven seasons in succes- 
sion before he got a good permanent stand. 

Where the subsoil is stiff, alfalfa will often 
grow well for two or three years and then begin 
to die. The rots grow down five or six feet into 
the raw, stiff subsoil, weaken and die. "When the 
stand becomes too thin to yield profitable crops, 
the alfalfa should be plowed up and one culti- 
vated crop grown on the land. While this crop 
is growing, the alfalfa roots will rot, making the 
soil loose, and air and water will follow the de- 
caying roots. The land in this way becomes sub- 
soiled and mellow to the full depth of the roots. 
Then reseed to alfalfa. The roots from the sec- 
ond seeding find it easy to grow down through 
the soil prepared by the first roots and are then 



strong enough to keep growing and make a per- 
manent stand. 

Most dry land farmers give up after a few at- 
tempts to get alfalfa to grow on sandy land. The 
secret of success is to get the land compact'' be- 
fore seeding and keep it firm until the alfalfa 
covers the ground. Mr. Frank Rockefeller suc- 
ceeded in getting a permanent stand of alfalfa on 
several hundred acres of land in southwest Kan- 
sas on land so sandy that it drifted badly when 
the wind was strong. Mr. Rockefeller fed cattle 
on the field that he wished to seed to alfalfa 
in the spring, scattering the feed so that all the 
land was well tramped. He raked the trash 
off the land in the spring and drilled in the alfalfa 




Typical head from field 
yielding 80 bushels an acre. 



Interior of head from field 
yielding 80 bushels an acre. 
The center or main stem ex- 
tends well toward the tip and 
has five joints. 



ROCK ISLAND LINES 



25 



without stirring the soil in any way. In the fall 
he had large patches of alfalfa alternating with 
spots of sand burrs. The following winter the 
cattle were fed on the places where alfalfa had 
not caught, giving the soil another tramping. 
The trash was burned off in the spring and al- 
falfa seed drilled in without stirring as before. 
The second fall there was a good stand of alfalfa 
on most of the land and only a few patches of 
sand burrs. Cattle were again fed on these places 
the next winter, and they were reseeded as be- 
fore. Usually in three years a full stand of alfalfa 
was secured even on very loose soil. 

The time to sow alfalfa on dry land is any time 



111 




between April 1st and August 31st, when the 
soil is in the right condition. 

The best results are secured by sowing with a 
grain drill, using 8 to 12 pounds of seed an acre. 
The seed may be mixed with an equal quantity 
of bran or corn chop to make the machine dis- 
tribute it evenly. It should be sown alone. So 
called "nurse crops" use the moisture that the 
young plants need. 

When alfalfa is sowed in the spring it is usually 
necessary to mow it two or three times during 
the summer to keep out the weeds, with the 
mower set high. It should not be pastured the 
first year. 

The only pest that 
damages alfalfa is 
the gopher. The al- 
falfa grower should 
make it his business 
every spring to de- 
stroy the gophers. 
Take large raisins 
and put in each one a 
small crystal of sul- 
phate of strychnine. 
Go into the field 
where the gophers 
are working, taking 
a wagon rod and a 
spade handle sharp- 
ened at the lower 
end. Locate the- runs 
by prodding with the 
wagon rod, when one 
is found open a hole 
from the surface of 
the ground to the 
run with the sharp- 
ened spade handle 
and drop a poisoned 
raisin into the hole. 
Close up the holes. 
Go over the field in 
the same way a sec- 
ond time in about ten 
weeks. This method 
will generally free 
the field of gophers 
until the next spring. 




Interior of head from field yielding 15 
bushels an acre. The center or main 
stem has but two joints and the long 
seed stems that form the tip start mid- 
way from the butt. 



Typical head from a field yielding IS 
bushels per acre. 



26 



DRY LAND FARMING IN THE SOUTHWEST 



Sweet Glover 



SWEET clover has been tried on a number of 
dry land farms in the Southwest and the re- 
sults secured indicate that it will become a 
regular crop. It grows vigorously in a dry year 
on dry hard clay land. It will produce fair yields 
of hay on high land where the rainfall is too 
light for most crops. Its roots grow deeply and 
decay quickly when the land is plowed, adding 
a large amount of decaying vegetable matter to 
the soil. This is a great need in dry land soils 
and one difficult to supply with other crops. 
Sweet clover has a marvelous effect in making 



machine to drop single seeds three-fourths of an 
inch apart in the row. 

Beginners find that it takes from 15 to 20 
pounds of hulled seed per acre to get a good 
stand, and a larger quantity of unhulled seed. 
After men have learned exactly how to manage 
the seeding on their own farms they generally 
sow eight to twelve pounds of hulled seed per 
acre. 

Most growers prefer hulled seed. Many of the 
seeds have a hard flinty covering through which 
the moisture does not penetrate the first few 
months after seeding sufficiently to induce ger- 
mination. Wherever fall or winter seeding is 
practiced about half as much seed is used as in 
spring planting. It is probable that the weath- 























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Second Cutting Rye for Hay in Foreground and Windmill Irrigation of Trees and Shrubs in Background. 

A Dry Land Farm In El Paso County, Colorado. 



hard, stiff soils mellow. A few years ago a 
western farmer undertook to plow some heavy 
gumbo land. It was so hard he had to have a 
man ride the beam to keep the plow in the 
ground. He seeded the land to sweet clover, 
broke it up in a few years and it was so mellow 
that it was hard to keep the plow from running 
beam deep. 

White sweet clover has generally given the 
best returns. It grows erect from three to eight 
feet high. When young, the plants are often 
mistaken for alfalfa, but can be distinguished by 
the bitter taste of the leaves. 

Sweet clover must have a firm, solid seed bed. 
A stand is seldom secured on newly plowed mel- 
low land. E. G. Finnup, of Garden City, Kans., 
finds a good method of securing a stand to be 
to sow ten pounds of seed broadcast in February 
and let the cattle tramp it into the ground. This 
is for sandy land. When this method is not prac- 
ticable he seeds with a grain drill, setting the 



ering the fall and winter-sown seeds get softens 
the hard seeds so that they grow in the spring. 

Sweet clover, like alfalfa, will not thrive un- 
less its roots are supplied with the bacteria that 
form nodules. In districts where considerable 
sweet clover or alfalfa is grown, the soil is usual- 
ly well inoculated with these bacteria through the 
work of wind and washing. Where the soil is 
not inoculated it is necessary to inoculate either 
the seed or the soil. 

Three hundred pounds of soil taken from a 
sweet clover or alfalfa field is needed to inoculate 
each acre. It may be drilled in or sown broad- 
cast and harrowed in. Sunlight kills these bac- 
teria and the soil used for inoculation must not 
be exposed to sunlight. It should be distributed 
over the field either on a cloudy day or after sun- 
down and be covered at once. 

Another method is to make a syrup of glue 
and warm water and sprinkle it over the sweet 
clover seeds until they become sticky. Then sift 



ROCK ISLAND LINES 



27 



the dirt from a sweet clover or alfalfa field that 
is growing vigorously over the sweet clover seeds 
until each seed becomes covered with dust. Drj' 
the seed in the dark and sow immediately. 

A large proportion of the failures with sweet 
clover are due to sowing on too mellow seed bed 
or lack of inoculation. 

Sweet clover sown in the fall or winter may 
be pastured heavily through the next season. 
If not pastured it will usually furnish two good 
cuttings of hay, yielding through the season from 
two to five tons per acre. The second season two 
cuttings of hay may be secured or one cutting of 
hay and a seed crop, or the sweet clover may 
be pastured until midsummer and afterward yield 
a crop of hay or seed. 

Sweet clover sown in the spring is usually 
ready to pasture in ten to twelve weeks. When 
not pastured too hard, a crop of hay is often 
secured the first fall. Sweet clover plants live 
but two years. Re-seeding is necessary every sec- 
ond year in order to keep the land in sweet 
clover. When properly handled the sweet clover 
reseeds itself and maintains a continuous growth 
for many years. To insure the self-seeding of 
sweet clover, the mower must be set to cut five 
or six inches above the ground. There will then 
be enough of the lower branches left uncut to 
keep up reseeding regularly. Sometimes when 
the sweet clover is sown on weedy ground it be- 
comes necessary to clip the weeds before the 
clover takes full possession. The mower should 
be set so as to cut five or six inches high in order 
not to check the sweet clover. Where sweet clo- 
ver is pastured through the season a sufficient 
number of lower branches usually escape the 
stock to provide for a continuous reseeding. 

Sweet clover for pasture must be short and 
succulent to be relished by stock. Stock does 
not like coarse woody stalks five to eight feet 
in height. Sweet clover is one of the first plants 
to appear in the spring and when the animals are 
turned on it early while the plants are tender 
they will soon be found eating it greedily. When 
it is desired to pasture sweet clover that has at- 
tained a large growth, it is best to mow it and 
turn on the stock when the new growth becomes 
well started. 

Sweet clover should be cut for hay before com- 
ing into bloom. If left to bloom the stems be- 
come woody and a large proportion of the leaves 
shatter off. Sweet clover is rather more diffi- 
cult to cure than alfalfa. It seems to be less dam- 
aged by rain while in the process of curing than 
alfalfa. 

The most important factor in cutting sweet 
clover for hay is to leave a stubble five or six 
inches in height. The branches start from the 
stem and a sufficient length of stem must be left 
to allow enough branching to make a good yield 
in the succeeding crop. 

Sweet clover makes a good pasture for horses, 
cattle, hogs, sheep and poultry and the hay ranks 
next in value to alfalfa. 



Spanish Peanuts 



THE Spanish peanut has a wonderful ability 
to adapt itself to a variety of soils, rainfall 
and climates. In 1911, in Texas and Okla- 
homa many yields of forty bushels per acre were 
made with forty-five days without a drop of rain 
during the growing season. In the same year in 
New Mexico, twenty-five bushels per acre were 
grown with a period of sixty days during the 
growing season without rain. In northwestern 
Illinois, the same year, a heavy crop was har- 
vested after a drought of forty days. 

In 1913, in Oklahoma, on thousands of acres, 
Spanish peanuts matured a crop of fifteen bushels 
an acre during a period of eighty-eight days with 
but one rain. 

The great value of the Spanish peanut to the 
Southwest is as a sure feed crop. An acre will 
put 500 to 1,000 pounds of gain on hogs, the hogs 
gathering the crop themselves. It produces a 
lieavy flow of milk in suckling sows and a rapid 
growth of pigs after weaning. It makes the most 
delicious flavored meat of any feed grown. It 
is one of the best feeds for making dairy cows 
give high yields. It is worth more than alfalfa 
to feed fattening steers and is good for growing 
cattle. It is a good sheep feed. It is one of the 
best feeds for horses and mules doing heavy, slow 
work. It forces a heavy flow of milk in mares 
suckling colts and makes rapid growth and size in 
growing draft horses and mules. 

Under favorable growing conditions the Span- 
ish peanut will mature in ninety days from plant- 
ing. When checked by drought or other unfav- 
orable conditions, it may take from 100 to 120 
days from the time of planting to maturity. 

The Spanish peanut has a small pod with two 
small nuts in each pod. The stems grow upright, 
making it easy to harvest them for hay. The base 
of the plant is thickly clustered with pods and 
they cling well to the vine in harvesting. This is 
a great advantage. The Spanish peanut is the va- 
riety generally grown for making peanut butter, 
salted peanuts and peanut oil. 

It is of vital importance to plant seed adapted 
to the climate of the field, where the crop is to 
be grown. Seed grown in the south, with a long 
warm season and forty-five to sixty inches of 
rainfall, cannot produce the best yields in dry 
farming sections where the rainfall is twelve to 
twenty-two inches, nor in the north where the 
season is short. Yet many persons buy peanut 
seed without knowing where it was raised and 
then condemn the plant as not adapted to their 
localities because the crop was a failure. 

Seed grown in western Oklahoma is preferable 
where the rainfall is less than thirty inches, and 
it is absolutely necessary to produce a good crop 
where the annual precipitation is twenty-two 
inches or less. It is also adapted to high altitudes 
and to northern climates. 



28 



DRY LAND FARMING IN THE SOUTHWEST 



In testing Spanish peanuts for ripeness of seed, 
break the shell carefully into two pieces. When 
the seed is thoroughly ripe, the inside of the shell 
will be brown and covered with darker brown 
spots or pits. When the peanut is not matured, 
the inside of the pod will be covered with a white 
lining nearly smooth. Such seed is not safe to 
plant, as it will not grow if the soil and climatic 
conditions are not favorable at planting time. 

In the dry land farming sections, peanuts are 
planted shallow with a lister. The ground should 
be thoroughly warm before planting to secure 
quick germination. In Central Texas, New Mexi- 
co, Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado, Spanish pea- 
nuts are planted in rows three feet apart, single 
pods, soaked and unshelled, being dropped twelve 
to fourteen inches apart in the rows. 

When a large acreage is planted, special pea- 
nut planters are used. With a small acreage the 
planting is done with a drill or a lister, taking 
blank plates and having them bored to fit the 
seed and the desired distance. The soaked seed 
must be planted in moist soil. When planted in 
dry soil, the soil absorbs the moisture and the 
seed is ruined. One bushel of seed in the shell 
will plant an acre of Spanish peanuts of the thick- 
ness given. 

Where moles are troublesome sprinkle a little 
kerosene over the pods just before planting. 

The peanuts need frequent shallow cultivation. 
The cultivation should begin as soon as the rows 
can be followed and should be continued at fre- 
quent intervals to the time of blossoming. After 
the pods begin to form, the vines should not be 
disturbed. Any cultivator suitable for shallow 
cultivation of corn is suitable for cultivation of 
peanuts. 

The cheapest way to harvest peanuts is to cut 
and cure the vines the same as alfalfa and then 
turn hogs into the field to gather the nuts. 

Pull the vines and cure the tops and nuts to- 
gether in cocks the same as alfalfa. The hay is 
the richest grown. Work horses hold their flesh 
while fed nothing but this hay. The nuts take 
the place of grain and the tops the place of hay. 

The hay made from tops and nuts cured to- 
gether is one of the best feeds for forcing cows to 
give a high yield of milk. 

In northwest Kansas and in eastern Colorado 
it is advisable to plant a small acreage to Span- 
ish peanuts and select the seed from the first 
plants to ripen until an acclimated strain is de- 
veloped. 

MEXICAN BEANS. 

The Mexican bean is a good dry land cash crop 
throughout the Southwest. It stands drought 
well and enriches the land on which it grows in 
the same way as clover and alfalfa. The Cali- 
fornia pink bean has been grown to a consider- 
able extent in Eastern Colorado during the past 
few years, and may become the rival of the 
Mexican. 



Mr. W. H. Lauck, Colorado Springs, County 
Agriculturist, El Paso county, Colorado, has paid 
special attention to the raising and marketing of 
Mexican beans on dry land farms. He furnishes 
the following information : 

The ground to be planted to Mexican beans 
should be plowed well in the fall. A good seed 
bed is necessary. The land should be disked once 
or twice in the spring before planting, to kill the 
weeds. 

Beans should be planted in El Paso county 
from May 20th to June 10th to get good results. 
When planted earlier the beans ripen unevenly 
and shatter readily. Eighteen to twenty-two 
pounds should be planted to the acre in rows 
thirty to thirty-six inches apart, depending on 
the tools for cultivation. A good bean should be 
placed every four to six inches in the row. It 
is a good plan to harrow ahead of the planting. 
Some producers use a corn planter with special 
plates and others use the regular corn plates. 

After planting, no cultivating or harrowing 
should be done until two large leaves appear on 
the plants. Then harrow carefully to get good 
results and kill weeds. Cultivate three inches 
deep, using fenders to prevent covering the 
plants. 

Mexican beans should be cultivated four times 
during the season, but should not be cultivated 
early in the morning when the dew is on the 
plants, or after showers, because if it is done rust 
or leaf blight will start. 

After the second cultivation the beans should 
be hoed. If there are many weeds, a good hoe- 
ing followed immediately by cultivation will kill 
them. Dirt should be thrown on the weed stubs. 
Don't cultivate too close to the plants after 
blooming. 

An ordinary sod plow with the rods taken off 
and the shear sharpened makes a good bean cut- 
ter. The plants can then be piled with a fork. 
One method of harvesting that is popular is the 
use of a sled having knives extending from each 
side runner. Rake with horse rake if there is a 
large acreage to be handled. The beans should 
not be allowed to get too ripe before cutting or 
they will shatter easily. After raking, stack be- 
fore threshing and allow time for a sweating 
process. 

To destroy bean beetles use a spray of lead ar- 
senate paste, three pounds to fifty gallons of 
water. Weevils may be kept out of threshed 
beans if the beans are stored in close woven sacks. 
A cheap bean grader may be made from small 
mesh wire cloth and should be used to clean the 
crop of pebbles, dirt and sticks. 

The Mexican bean is one of the legumes or 
nitrogen storing plants and should have its place 
in crop rotation on every dry land farm. Larger 
crops may be produced if the ground is properly 
handled after beans have been harvested. The 
Mexican bean crop is the cash crop of the dry 
land country. 



ROCK ISLAND LINES 



29 




Listed in Fall to Catch Snow and Stop Soil Movement. 




ALL small grain is uncertain on the plains of 
the Southwest. In western Kansas during 
"twenty-five years, two counties have made an 
annual average of less than five bushels of wheat 
an acre, and twenty-two counties have made an 
average of less than eight bushels. Eastern Colo- 
rado has had only seven profitable crops of wheat 
in twenty-eight years. The yield of both wheat 
and oats is good throughout the Panhandle of 
Texas this year — 1914. The last general good 
yield of small grain in the Panhandle was in 1908 
— a period between good crops of six years. 

One of the best farmers of eastern Colorado 
has never raised less than fifteen bushels of wheat 
an acre ; his yields have run from this to thirty 
bushels an acre. He says that every wheat crop 
that he has raised has been profitable. But in 
eighteen years he has seeded and raised only six 
crops. This farmer depends on dairy cows and 
live stock to furnish his living and the steady 
profits. He keeps a close watch on the moisture 
of the soil. In years when there is sufficient mois- 
ture in the soil to insure a good crop of wheat, 
he prepares the land thoroughly and sows wheat. 
In years when the moisture conditions are not fa- 
vorable, no wheat is sown. 

The irregularity of the rainfall on the plains 
prevents wheat raising from being profitable 
every year, and the methods of farming generally 
followed make wheat unprofitable in many years 
when good farming would secure good yields. 
Two years ago, in a district of western Kansas 
where wheat has been almost the only crop for 
thirty years, sixty-five square miles of the land 
blew off as deep as it had ever been stirred. Farms 
that had been sold for $20 an acre and had good 
buildings and were well fenced, were abandoned. 
Their owners went to other districts to work by 
the day. I investigated every farm in this blown 



district and I found that some farmers did not 
own a plow, and one wheat field that had not 
been plowed for twenty-seven years. The last 
time that a field had been plowed in that section 
was nine years before the severe blowing occur- 
red. 

Each year the surface of the ground in wheat 
stubble had been pulverized with a disc and the 
wheat seed drilled into the disked land. An in- 
vestigating three years ago in the Panhandle of 
Texas, showed that many farmers did not own a 
plow. 

Nineteen hundred and eleven was extremely 
dry in most districts from the Rocky Mountains to 
the Atlantic Coast. Wheat was generally a failure 
throughout the Southwest. That year the Kan- 
sas Experiment Station harvested four and one- 
half bushels of wheat per acre on land that had 
been disked only and thirty-five bushels an acre 
on land that had been listed deep early in July 
and then cultivated or harrowed every ten days 
until seeding time. 

Where wheat is to be sown on land from 
which grain or some other crop is removed in 
June or early July, the ground should be thor- 
oughly disked as soon as the first crop is har- 
vested. When wheat is to follow wheat or oats, 
the disc harrow should follow the binder or be 
run immediately after the shocking is finished. 
Early in July the land should be listed deeply so 
that the furrow slices will thoroughly cover the 
ridges. Then every ten days or two weeks the 
listed land should be worked with either a two- 
horse cultivator or a disc harrow. This tillage 
should be managed so that the ground will be- 
come level by seeding time. The wheat should 
be seeded with a grain drill, sowing not over 
forty pounds of Turkey Red per acre. When 
there is not sufficient moisture in the fall to make 
seeding advisable, the land can be relisted late 
in the fall and kept in ridges through the winter. 

Land in silage crops and well cultivated is 
usually in ideal condition for seeding to wheat 



30 



DRY LAND FARMING IN THE SOUTHWEST 



in the fall, after the cultivated crop has been put 
in the silo. It needs no preparation. The wheat 
can be seeded with a disc drill. 

RYE. 

Rye is a paying dry land crop to sow when 
there is moisture enough in the fall to bring it 
up quickly. Sow forty pounds per acre. It may 
be pastured through the fall and early spring. 
It should be cut for hay when the grains reach 
the milk stage. In a year of fair rainfall, rye 
treated in this way will yield from one to two 
tons of hay per acre. 

Fall rye sown in the spring will furnish hog 
pasture through the summer. 

OATS. 

Oats as a grain crop is even more uncertain on 
dry land than wheat. In seasons of average 
spring rainfall, oats make one of the best dry 
land hay crops. An early variety should be sown 
— Kherson or early Champion or similar kind. 
They will often make a good hay crop in seasons 
when the moisture is insufficient for varieties, 
ripening two to four weeks later. In seasons like 
1914, oats yielded paying crops of grain. 

Cut the oats for hay when the grains are in 
the milk stage and cure in cocks with as little ex- 
posure as possible to the sun. 

MILLET. 

Millet is a quick growing crop. Common millet 
matures in the shortest time and therefore draws 
moisture from the soil for the least period of time. 
German millet yields the most and is preferred' 
when there is an average supply of moisture. 
Common millet is one of the best drought regis- 
ters. Northern seed produces much the hardiest 
plants. The foliage of plants from southern seed 
is heavier. Sow fifteen to twenty pounds of seed 
to the acre. 

Cut before the seeds get hard. It is a good 
plan to start cutting as soon as the heads become 
fully developed. 




Continued feeding of millet to horses some 
times causes incurable lameness. It is fairly 
safe to use for horses when cut early and only 
one feed a day is given of the millet hay and 
some other forage at the other feedings. Millet 
is chiefly valuable as a cattle feed. 

DWARF ESSEX RAPE. 

This is one of the best "catch crops" for hog 
pasture. In dry land districts it must be sown 
as early in the spring as oats, or in the fall after 
the hot weather is passed. "When Dwarf Essex 
rape is sown early it will get a good start and 
is a fair drought resister. Sown in May or June, 
midsummer droughts are likely to kill it. It may 
be sown about the middle of September if the 
ground is moist and then will usually make good 
hog pasture until January 1st. It withstands 
hard frosts and I have seen it alive and fresh in 
Colorado under a light snow. 

Drill in rows two or three feet apart, using 
three to five pounds of seed an acre, and culti- 
vate thoroughly until a vigorous growth is se- 
cured. 



Sudan Grass 



Dugout Chicken House. 



SUDAN GRASS seems to be the hay plant that 
the Dry Land farmers of the Southwest 
have needed so long. It has been grown six 
years in the Panhandle of Texas, yielding a ton 
of hay an acre in dry seasons and four tons an 
acre in years of good rainfall. It has done well 
in the dry lands of Kansas, Oklahoma, eastern 
Colorado and eastern New Mexico. 

Sudan grass is considered to be the original 
type of wild sorghum and is often called the 
"mother of all the sorghums." Like the sor- 
ghums and the kafirs it is a vigorous drought re- 
sister and will wait a long time for rain. During 
a prolonged drought it stops growing and stands 
still, but it lives. When rains come it makes a 
quick and heavy growth, seeming to have accu- 
mulated energy while it waited for rain. 

The hay is much like that made from sorghum 
except that the stems are finer, about the size 
of a lead pencil, the hay therefore containing a 
greater proportion of leaf than that made from 
cane. On account of the small stalk the crop is 
easy to cure into hay and keeps well when 
stacked. The plant holds its leaves well which 
gives it a marked advantage in windy weather 
and when it is necessary to delay cutting. 

It does not thrive where the nights are too cool. 
In 1914 it yielded well in eastern Colorado at an 
altitude of 5,500 feet. It will probably be found 
unprofitable at altitudes so high as to prevent 
sorghum from growing well. 

It is the general opinion of conservative 
growers that Sudan grass will take the place in 
the Southwest of millet and of considerable cane. 
Its one serious defect for the Southwest is that 
it crosses readily with the sorghums, kafirs and 



ROCK ISLAND LINES 



31 




Sudan Grass. 



broomcorn and unless care is taken this charac- 
teristic will result in mongrel seed of all these 
crops on farm where all are grown. 

Sudan grass is adapted to any soil that will 
grow cane or any of the kafirs profitably. On 
lands that will give a heavy yield of cane, a 
heavy yield of Sudan grass may be produced. On 
lands that will produce light yields of cane, a 
small crop of Sudan grass may be expected. 

List the ground early in the spring. "When the 
ground becomes warm, relist, splitting the fur- 
rows. Make the furrows at planting time shal- 
low. 

Plant in rows 30 to 36 inches apart, dropping 
single seeds 6 to 8 inches apart in the row, using 
an ordinary kafir plate in the seed box. 

Cultivate often and shallow. The roots grow 
near to the surface and deep cultivation after 
the plants get well started will cut off a large 
portion of the roots and reduce the yield. Culti- 
vate to keep the land level. The cultivation may 
be done with the ordinary two-horse corn culti- 
vator, using small shovels or with a one horse 
cultivator having small teeth. Cultivate until 
the plants cover the ground so that the weeds 
will not grow. 

The largest yields are secured by cutting the 
plants when they first come in bloom. The best 
quality of hay is produced by cutting the plants 
when they come in full bloom. 

The crop is handled the same as millet in mak- 
ing hay. Cut and allow the leaves to become 
partially wilted but not dry. Rake in large wind- 



rows, cure in large cocks and then put in stack 
or barn. 

Where the crop is desired for seed, let it stand 
until the first heads are fully ripe, then cut with 
a grain binder and shock and stack the same as 
wheat or oats. 

Sudan grass has the same enemies as sorghum — ■ 
chinch bugs and grasshoppers. 

At Chillicothe, Texas in a season having twen- 
ty-two and nine-tenths inches of rainfall well dis- 
tributed, Sudan grass made four cuttings of hay, 
one ton per acre at each cutting. The same sea- 
son millet yielded one ton of hay an acre and su- 
mac sorghum six and a half tons of cured forage 
per acre. At Spur, Texas, in a season of fifteen 
inches of rainfall, Sudan grass yielded one and 
a half tons of hay an acre. 

In 1913, a year of severe drought, Sudan grass 
yielded 1% to 2^/4 tons of hay an acre in Eastern 
Colorado and in the Panhandle of Texas. 



The Well 



4S soon as a man has selected land in a dry 
/\ farming section, he should dig or bore a 
well and erect a windmill. He should do 
this before he builds a house. His family can live 
comfortably several months in a tent in any dry 
farming section of the Southwest and should do 
so until a water supply is secured. 

In many parts of the Southwest there is sheet 
water at about a uniform depth, usually 100 to 



32 



DRY LAND FARMING IN THE SOUTHWEST 



225 feet. "When a well reaches the sheet water 
an ample supply of water is certain. In other 
sections the underground water seems to exist 
in the form of thin streams, with none under most 
of the land. In such sections of the southwest a 
well may furnish so much water that a large 
windmill cannot pump it dry, and another well 
100 feet distant furnish no water at all. In one 
place on the plains, sheet water in abundance is 
found at a depth of about 200 feet. There seems 
to be a break in the water-holding strata along 
a certain line, and beyond this no water has been 
found even at a depth of 500 or more feet. The 
territory where no water has been found has been 
settled and depopulated several times. New men 
visit the country, see the wells and comfortable 
homes on the lands above the sheet water, and 
think they can get the same kind of wells on the 
other land. 

Dry land farmers for' miles have been getting 
good supplies of water at a depth of 200 feet. 
A new settler took a homestead about a mile fur- 
ther out on the prairie, but on the same level, 
and feeling sure that he too could get water at 
the same depth, put up a house and a good stable 
and other out buildings, broke his land and put 
in his crops. Then he dug a well. He bored 
down 100 feet with no indications of water. An- 
other dry farmer being certain that he could get 
water at the same depth as other farmers in the 
same township, erected good buildings, fenced 
and broke his land, and planted crops. In the 
meantime he had to have all the water hauled 
eight miles for the house, the teams and the 
cows. After the crops were well along, he started 
a well. He sunk two deep wells without finding 
water, and ran out of money. The nert year he 
sunk a deep well and got water so alkaline that 
even the cattle could not drink it. The third 
year he got a good well, but a half a mile from his 
buildings. Another farmer put up his buildings 



first and then dug a well, and the water was so 
salty that it could not be used. Later another 
well was dug in the pasture half a mile from the 
house, and good water found. 

These instances are given to emphasize the im- 
portance of getting a plentiful supply of good 
water before any other expenditure Is made. 
First, without water the farm must sooner or 
later be abandoned. Second, the buildings should 
be near the well, and to be sure of getting them 
there, the well must be secured first. 

THE WIND MILL AND RESERVOIR. 

As soon as a good well is secured, it should be 
equipped with a pump and a wind mill. Most 
dry land farmers make the mistake of getting a 
wind mill too small in size. The wheel should be 
twelve or fourteen feet in diameter. 

All dry countries are windy, and a wind mill 
can work most of the time. There are still days, 
some times several still days in succession, when 
a wind mill will not work. If the farmer can at- 
ford it, he should get a galvanized iron tank that 
will hold at least tour days' supply of water. 

The wind mill should be kept running day and 
night, summer and winter, when there is suffi- 
cient wind. All the water should be pumped into 
the storage tank and an overflow be provided at 
the top of this tank to carry the surplus water to 
a dirt reservoir. 

A convenient size for this reservoir is seventy- 
five feet square and eight feet high. The bottom 
of the reservoir should be on the level with the 
ground outside, so that all the water can be used. 
The walls and bottom should be built of clay well 
tramped down while being made. The top of the 
earth walls should be eight feet wide for a reser- 
voir of this size, and the walls on each side should 
extend out two feet for every foot in height. 




Milo on Left, Feterita on Right— Farm of Panhandle Agricultural Institute.Goodwell, Okla. 



ROCK ISLAND LINES 



33 



The water may be taken out of the reservoir by 
a wooden pipe eight inches square, the opening 
closed with a wooden slide. Every four feet 
along the wooden pipe a collar should be placed, 
six inches wide, and the earth packed solidly 
along the pipe and along these collars. If the 
collars are not used, the water from the reservoir 
will gradually follow along the outside of the 
pipe, and finally wash the earth away. 

With a good well, a wind mill with a large 
wheel, a tank and a reservoir, the dry land set- 
tler is sure of water close at hand. With a res- 
ervoir he can be certain to have a garden that 
will supply the family table bountifully, and al- 
low him to sell $100 to $200 worth of produce 
every season. 

It may seem hard at first to spend the amount 
of money needed to secure this equipment, but 
as it insures success, the new settler should make 
this his first expense. Three-fourths of the peo- 
ple who have abandoned dry land farms in the 
past ten years would have stood by their home- 
steads, and later have become prosperous if they 
had, when they first settled, secured a water sys- 
tem like the one described. 

IRRIGATING THE DRY LAND GARDEN. 

The wind mill should be run day and night the 
year round. In the winter time the water should 
be used to thoroughly soak one-half the garden. 
Whenever the reservoir becomes full, the water 
should be run out over this part of the garden. 
By using winter irrigation, the wind mill will en- 
able the farmer to get large yields from twice 
the area. If the ground is thoroughly soaked dur- 
ing the winter, and earth mulch put on early in 
the spring, good crops can be raised by thorough 
cultivation, without any irrigation during the 
summer. On the winter irrigated land, plant in 
rows, three feet apart, all the ordinary crops, 
such as lettuce, radishes, peas, beans, beets, sweet 
corn and flowers; at a greater distance cucum- 
bers, cantaloupes and watermelons. 

The ground for the garden should be plowed 
deep and worked and reworked with a disc har- 
row and smoothing harrow until it is fine and 
mellow. Everything, no matter how small it 
grows, should be in rows extending the whole 
length of the garden. Do not plant garden truck 
in beds or short rows on a dry land farm. If 
you do not want lettuce enough to take a whole 
row, put in as much as you want and plant the 
rest of the row in radishes or peas or beans. Cul- 
tivate the garden well every week, using one 
horse and a small shoveled cultivator. A farmer 
does not usually have time or inclination to do 
much hoeing. 

When the plants need water, plow a small fur- 
row six inches wide, three to four inches deep 
near each row. Run lengthwise through this fur- 
row a smooth round post. This will smooth the 
bottom of the furrow, and the water can be dis- 




J. C. Childs in His Field of Beans in El Paso 
County, Colorado. 

tributed better. Run a ditch from the pipe com- 
ing out of the reservoir to the furrow and turn 
enough water out of the reservoir to make a 
stream as large as the ditch. A little experience 
will teach you how long to run the water in each 
furrow. After one row has had water enough, 
turn the stream into the ditch along the next row. 

Water should not come in direct contact with 
the plants. If the soil is well soaked, the mois- 
ture will gradually find its way to the roots. In 
hot summer days, water will go nearly twice as 
far if applied after sundown. 

The next morning after the garden has been 
irrigated, it should be thoroughly cultivated to 
fill up the ditch and make an earth mulch to re- 
tain the moisture. Usually, if sufficient water 
has been used and the soil has been handled 
right after irrigating, the crops will not need 
water oftener than once in ten days or two 
weeks. A little water and much cultivation se- 
cures the best results. 

THE GARDEN. 

Mr. A. R. Pierce, seedman, Pueblo, has lived 
for thirty-two years in Colorado and has paid 
especial attention to the garden crops and the 
varieties that are best adapted to dry land dis- 
tricts. His advice has enabled many dry land 
farmers every year to secure productive gar- 
dens. His recommendations follow: 

"On one side of the garden set a row of early 
Richmond cherry trees, using two-year-old trees 
and setting them fifteen feet apart in the row. 
Between the cherry trees, starting three feet 
from the tree, set year old rhubarb roots. Set 
the roots in soil that has been well mixed with 
rotten manure. Set them three feet apart. Two 
dozen rhubarb plants will be sufficient for a large 
family. 

"Set a row of wild goose plum trees fifteen 
feet from the row of cherry trees. The plum trees 
should be set ten feet apart, using two-year-old 

trees. , 

"Next set one row of Bederwood strawberries, 
the length of the garden, placing the plants six- 



34 



DRY LAND FARMING IN THE SOUTHWEST 




M. 




Alfalfa in Rows on a Dry Land Farm. 



teen inches in the row. The Bederwood needs 
no other variety to fertilize the flowers. 

"Between the plum trees set two-year-old as- 
paragus plants one foot apart. Fifty plants are 
enough to start with. 

"Between the cherry or plum trees, as most 
convenient, set one dozen gooseberry bushes. 
Use two-year-old plants and place them four 
feet apart. Also one dozen currant bushes, set 
the same distance in the row. Radish, lettuce 
and onion sets may be planted in any vacant 
spaces between these plants and trees the first 
two years. One dozen horse radish roots may 
be set out eighteen inches apart in the row. 

"Raise in a hot bed, or buy for early plant- 
ing, plants of tomatoes, cabbage, peppers, and 
cauliflower. Set for first use one dozen dwarf 
Champion tomato plants, eighteen inches apart 
in the row and one dozen each early Acme and 
Beauty tomato plants thirty-six inches apart in 
the row. 

"In March set two dozen plants early Wake- 
field cabbage and later one hundred plants of 
Copenhagen market cabbage. This is the best 
second early and late cabbage for dry land farm- 
ers. Set cabbage plants twenty inches in the 
row. 

"Set one dozen Cayenne pepper plants and one 
dozen Mango pepper plants eighteen inches apart 
in the row. 

"One dozen plants early Snowball cauliflower 
twenty inches apart in the row, and treat the 
same as early cabbage. 

"One hundred plants of late Giant Pascal cel- 
ery eight inches apart in a trench with well 
rotted manure. 

"Peas — Sow as soon as can be planted, Early 
Alaska, one pound ; Gradus, one pound and two 
weeks later, Everbearing, one pound. One 



pound of seed peas is sufficient for fifty feet of 
row. 

"Beets — One ounce New Eclipse is sufficient for 
fifty feet of row. The young beets can be 
thinned to supply greens first and young beets 
for cooking. After thinning, the beets left can 
be gathered in the fall for winter use. 

"Mangels — Sow one pound of Golden Tankard 
and one pound of Long Red. Treat same as 
beets. 

"Carrots — One ounce Half Long Danvers. 

"Lettuce — One five-cent package will sow 
twenty-five feet of row. One package Black 
Seeded Simpson and one package Big Boston. 

"Radish — One package each of early Scarlet 
Globe, Cincinnati Market and Long White Vien- 
na. In July sow one package of Black Spanish 
winter radish with turnips. This radish will keep 
all winter. 

"Turnips — Sow as early as the ground can be 
prepared one package of Early Flat Dutch. Sow 
in July one ounce Purple Top Globe. 

"Onions — For early green onions plant two 
inches apart, two pounds onion sets. Sow as soon 
as ground can be worked one-half ounce Austrian 
brown and half ounce Early Red Globe. 

"Parsley — One package Moss Curl. 

"Parsnips — One package of Hollow Crown' will 
sow fifty feet of row. Sow where the plant can 
remain in the ground until spring. Parsnips are 
delicious when dug in the spring after remaining 
all winter in the ground where they grew! 

"Beans — Plant as soon as the ground gets 
warm, one-half pound each Burpee Stringless, 
Green Pod, and one pound Prolific Black Wax. 
Thirty days later make a second planting. 

"Sage — One package. 

"Dill — One package for dill pickles. 



ROCK ISLAND LINES 



35 



"Sweet Corn — Plant at one time one pint each 
White Australian, Extra Early Adams and Gold- 
en Bantam. This will give a succession. A little 
later plant two pints of Stowell Evergreen. 

"Cucumbers — One package each New Early 
Fortune and Arlington White Spine. Plant six 
to eight seeds in a hill, thin to three or four 
strong plants in a hill. Make hills five feet 
apart. 

"Cantaloupes — One package Blinns Rust Re- 
sistant, and one package Burrels Gem. The 
sweetest, most delicious flavored cantaloupes 
raised in the world are those grown on newly 
broken prairie sod. 

"Watermelon — One package Rocky Ford and 
one package Klecklys Sweet. 

"Pumpkin — One package Sugar pumpkin for 
pies. Field pumpkins as desired. Watermelons 
and cantaloupes may be planted side by side, 
as they do not cross. Cucumbers, squash and 
pumpkins must each be planted by itself. 

"Squash — One package each Hubbard, Pike's 
Peak and White Bush. Plant in hills four feet 
apart, six to eight seeds to the hill. Thin to 
three or four strong plants to the hill. One 
pound Summer Crookneck squash seed will plant 
an acre and will give a large quantity of choice 
feed for fattening pigs. 

FLOWERS. 

"Sow one package each, four o 'clocks, bachelor 
buttons, candytuft mixed, cosmos, California 
poppy, gillardia, hollyhocks double mixed, nas- 
turtiums, petunias, phlox, sunflower, sweet peas 
mixed, sweet William and zinnia. If the seed is 
sown in broad beds near the house it will be 
an easy matter to water the plants and with this 
selection or even part of the number there will 
be a constant succession of brilliant blossoms. 
Flaming bush makes a beautiful plant for the 
borders. 

"A row of Russian sunflowers on all sides of 
the garden are attractive and the seeds make 
good chicken feed. 

VINES. 

"A vine covered porch adds much to the charm 
and comfort of the home. Before the trees get 




German Millet, Oklahoma. 



large enough for shade a lattice can be made 
starting from one side of the house. This will 
afford a shady place in which to prepare the vege- 
tables for dinner and under which to eat supper 
on warm summer evenings. The Japanese hop 
vine is a quick grower. One package will be 
enough seed to cover a large porch. Morning 
glory and wild cucumber vines are both good 
for the porch. These should be planted in the 
fall and will start earlier in the spring if left in 
the ground all winter. 

"For permanent vines the Virginia creeper and 
clematis are hardy, vigorous growers and very at- 
tractive. Set two year old plants." 

TREES. 

The Russian olive stands extreme drought and 
heat well and is always attractive. Plant the 
seed. It may be grown as a hedge or thinned 
out and trimmed and grown as a tree. The black 
locust is the tree generally planted on dry land 
through the Southwest. It grows well even in 
dry years and the thick foliage is a rich dark 
green. The wood is very durable for fence posts. 
With all its good qualities and popularity it is 
not likely to be a long-lived tree, as it is apt to 
be attacked by borers when twelve or fifteen years 
old. 

The white elm and green ash are among the 
best dry land trees and if they can be given a 
little water each season, will grow for a life 
time. The cotton wood when it can have some 
water is a quick grower. A few mulberry trees 
are very attractive to the birds. 

H. N. Wheeler, forest expert of Colorado, gives 
the following advice: The wind break should 
consist of eight or ten rows of trees planted from 
twelve to fifteen feet apart, and the trees in the 
row from six to eight feet apart. 

The best varieties to plant for this purpose are 
Russian olive in the outer row and in the other 
rows white willow, cotton wood (preferably the 
native species), Russian mulberry, choke cher- 
ries, honey locusts and evergreens, particularly 
the western yellow pine and the red cedar. 

Around the house and in the door yard may be 
set lyeium (matrimony vine) which will cover 
dry soil and prevent blowing, flowering currants, 
thimble berries, buffalo berries, dogwood, haw- 
thorne and sumac. Close to the house and by 
the outbuildings plant Engleman ivy, the native 
Colorado woodbine, clematis and any other na- 
tive vine wished. 

The majority of these trees and shrubs will 
do fairly well without irrigation. However, much 
more satisfactory results will be obtained by irri- 
gation and other shrubs can be grown which will 
add materially to the beauty of the home. These 
include lilacs, snowballs, elder berries, spiraeas 
and roses. 



36 



DRY LAND FARMING IN THE SOUTHWEST 



MANURE. 

Manure is usually wasted on dry land farms, 
though the land needs it even more than that in 
the rainbelt. 

Manure adds to the decayed animal and vege- 
table matter in the soil, increasing its holding 
capacity for water. Where much manure has 
been added to the soil and it has become thor- 
oughly decayed and mixed with the soil, the soil 
will absorb and hold twice as much water as soil 
devoid of it. 

After it becomes well decayed and closely 
mixed through the soil, manure greatly improves 
the mechanical condition of the land. It makes 
hard lands more mellow and loose sandy soil 
more compact. The manure, of course, is needed 
to furnish food for the growing plants. 

The best way to apply manure on dry land 
fields is as a top dressing on small grains or for- 
age crops like alfalfa and sweet clover. The 
manure should be applied as a top dressing dur- 



ing the fall and winter. The fertilizing materials 
which it contains will be absorbed by the soil 
without injury to crops and most of the coarse 
stalks will decay and much of them be absorbed. 
Twenty loads to the acre can be used with safety. 

Manure applied in this way adds to the fertility 
of the soil and acts as a mulch to hold the mois- 
ture in the soil. 

On ground that blow badly heavy applications 
of coarse' manure or even straw to fields of 
growing' wheat will frequently stop the blowing. 
Where the wind is strong it is a good plan to 
run over the coarse manure as fast as it is spread 
with a weighted disc harrow, the discs being set 
nearly straight. This will tie down the trash in 
places with soil and help to hold the top dressing 
against the wind. 

A manure spreader is one of the dry land farm- 
er's best tools when he has the money to pay for 
it. This machine spreads the manure so much 
more evenly than it is possible to spread by hand. 




Map showing rainfall and length of growing season in portion of great plains area served by Rock Island Lines 

Dotted lines show number of days between last killing frost in spring and first killing frost in autumn, as compiled from U. S. government reports. 
Black lines show average annual rainfall in inches, as compiled from U. S. government reports. 



ROCK ISLAND LINES 



37 




Hogs and Alfalfa Near Amarillo, Texas. 



Personal 



I HAVE written the articles in this 
booklet for the dry land farmers of 
the southwest along the Rock Island 
Lines because I know what they can do. 
My father moved his family to Kansas in 
1875 when I was a small boy. He located 
on an upland farm that had been aban- 
doned because its previous owner could 
not keep body and soul together on it. 
We brought our seed with us from Illinois 
and of course the crops generally failed. 
At that time the crop failures in eastern 
Kansas were as frequent as they are now 
in eastern New Mexico. 

We milked cows and when the drought 
killed the crops, the prairie grass sup- 
plied enough feed for a fair yield of milk. 
Every week my mother drove seventeen 
miles to town and sold the butter for 10 
cents a pound. Think how we would have 
prospered had present prices prevailed ! 

The first brood sow was bought _ on 
credit from a man whose crops had failed 
and he sold her because he had nothing 
to feed her. We paid for her with but- 
ter money. We had rye bread all one win- 
ter, because all other grain failed, and we 
had to go twenty miles to a grist mill to 
have the rye ground for toll. 



Kafir and milo were unknown and no- 
body knew anything about the science 
of saving moisture. We had to grope in 
the dark and tried more things that 
failed than we did those that succeeded. 
When we found anything that paid we 
stuck to it. Always the dairy cows and 
the prairie grass furnished an income. 
We milked scrub cows because we could 
not afford any other kind. It was ten 
years before we felt able to even buy a 
pure bred bull. But every cow that we 
milked was a profitable one. My father 
was a good judge of cows. We lived in 
a range country of beef cattle. He would 
ride around among the herds of beef 
cattle until he found a cow of strong dairy 
type. Usually she had some Shorthorn 
blood. The beef men were glad to sell 
us such cows because they were not as 
smooth as the other cattle. 

After we learned how to handle the 
soil, got well bred acclimated seed and 
the calves grew up into a good sized 
herd, we gradually dropped dairying and 
changed the herd to beef cattle, making 
the income from steers, pigs and horses. 
It was the dairy cows though and the 
prairie grass that put us on our feet. 



38 



DRY LAND FARMING IN THE SOUTHWEST 



On that upland farm, once abandoned 
and where "nobody could make a living," 
my father furnished a good home and a 
comfortable living. Every one of his nine 
children were graduated from the Kan- 
sas Agricultural College, their expenses 
paid from the income from that farm. 

For nine years I had charge of the field 
and feeding work of the Kansas Experi- 
ment Station, making a specialty of rais- 
ing drought resisting crops and feeding 
them to get the greatest returns in meat 
and milk. During that time I visited 
thousands of dry land farms in Kansas, 
studying their owners' methods and the 
successes and failures. For four years 
I had charge of the Farmers' Institute 
of the Colorado Agricultural College and 
spent much time every year with the dry 
land farmers. Since becoming agricul- 
turist of the Rock Island Lines, I have 
had the opportunity to meet hundreds 
of successful as well as unsuccessful dry 
land farmers in Colorado, Kansas, Okla- 
homa, Texas and New Mexico and watch 
their work. 

In all these years and in every place 
in the large area that I have studied, the 



dairy farmer who intelligently selected 
and fed the right kind of cows and whose 
chief crops were drought resisting feed 
crops, has succeeded. The man who de- 
pended upon grain has failed. Most of 
the dry land country of the Southwest 
has been settled and depopulated four 
times — the grain growers rushing in by 
thousands in wet years and dragging out 
"broke" in dry years. Every one of these 
periods has left an increase in the farm 
population because the men who raised 
live stock and not grain alone made mon- 
ey every year, wet or dry, and they 
stayed. 

With this personal experience and these 
years of observation of dry farming in 
five states I know that the average 320- 
acre tract in the dry farming districts 
served by the Rock Island Lines is suf- 
ficient, when managed rightly as a dairy 
farm, to make a comfortable living and 
to furnish a good and regular cash in- 
come for a large family. 



Agricultural Commissioner, Rock Island Lines. 




Kafir Field in Western Oklahoma. 



To Farmers and Homeseekers 



The services of the Agricultural Department 
of Eock Island Lines are available to farmers 
in our territory, or to those intending to settle 
in the country contiguous to our lines. This de- 
partment is in charge of Prof. H. M. Cottrell, 
formerly connected with Kansas and Colorado 
agricultural colleges, who has been familiar with 
conditions in the Plains region for many years. 
He is the author of the following standard agri- 
cultural bulletins, which may be had free on ap- 
plication to the undersigned: 

How to Double the Yield of Corn. 
How to Make Money Dairying. 
How to Double the Yield of Potatoes. 
How to Make Poultry Pay. 



He also supervises the issuance of the South- 
west Trail, our monthly agricultural journal, 
which takes up each month a separate subject of 
interest to farmers in our territory, or those in- 
tending to become producers. This paper is sent 
free on application. 

Descriptive state pamphlets are available free 
on the following sections: Arkansas, Louisiana, 
Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Mis- 
souri and Kansas. Correspondence invited re- 
garding the farming opportunities in these 
states. Address all communications to 

L. M. ALLEN, 
Passenger Traffic Manager, 
Room 718 La Salle Station, Chicago, Ills. 



PASSENGER REPRESENTATIVES 



Amarillo, Tex., C. R. I. & G. R'y. 

Atlanta, Ga. , 41 1 Peters Bldg 

Boston, Mass., 288 Washington St. . 

Buffalo, N. Y., 297 Main St 

Burlington, Iowa. . 



. .J. I. Johnson General Agent 

. .H. H. Hunt. .District Passenger Agent 
. . S. L. Parrott, Gen'l New England Agt. 
. .R. S. Graham, District Passenger Agt. 
.N. L. Cook. .City Pass. & Tkt. Agt. 



Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 4th St. and First Ave.JoHN G. Farmer, Gen'l Agt.Pass. Dept. 

Chattanooga, Tenn., Patten Hotel Bldg.. O. Collins. . .Trav. Passenger Agent 

Chicago, 111. , Adams and Dearborn Sts L.H.McCormick, Gen'l Agt. Pass. Dept. 

Cincinnati, Ohio, 38 East 4th St H. I. McGuire, Dist. Passenger Agent 

Cleveland, Ohio, 515 Hippodrome Bldg-...F. A. Haas. .District Passenger Agent 

Colorado Springs, Colo. ,2 Pike's Peak AveR. S. Torrington, City Passenger Agt. 

Dallas, Tex., C R. I. & G. R'y, Cor. Com- 
merce and Field Sts A. E. Dove. . . .City Passenger Agent 

Davenport, Iowa S. F- Boyd Gen'l Agt. Pass. Dept. 

Denver, Colo., 16th and California Sts G. W. Martin General Agent 

Des Moines, Iowa, 401 Central Life Bldg. Hal. S. Ray. . . Asst. Gen'l. Pass Agent 
423 Walnut St Geo. R. Kline. .City Passenger Agent 

Detroit, Mich., Majestic Bldg C. C. Gardner. . Dist. Passenger Agt. 

El Paso, Tex., E. P. & S. W. System Richard Warren General Agent 

Fort Worth, Tex., C. R. I. & G. R'y, 5th 

and Main Sts V. N. Turpin. . . .City Passenger Agent 

Hot Springs, Ark W. M. Anderson, City Passenger Agt. 

Indianapolis, Ind., 015 Merchants Bank 

Bldg J F. Powers . . . Dist. Passenger Agent 

Kansas City, Mo., Cor. 9th and Main Sts. .C. W. Jones, Gen'l Agent Pass. Dept. 

Leavenworth, Kan., 424 Delaware St J. M. Allen General Agent 

Lincoln, Neb., 1141 O. St F. H. Bahnes. . .City Passenger Agent 

Little Rock, Ark., 2d and McLean Sts. .C. B. Sloat. . .Asst. General Pass. Agt. 
Ill W. Second St P. C. Richardson. . .City Pass. Agent 

London, Eng., 29-31 Cockspur St., S. W.. .Alex. Jackson .. Gen'l European Agt. 

Los Angeles, Cal., 519 S. Spring St J. L. Stanton, District Passenger Agt. 



Memphis, Tenn., Peabody Hotel F. M. Griffith. .Dist. Passenger Agt. 

Minneapolis, Minn., 201 Metropolitan Life 
Bldg Gaylord Warner, Asst. Gen'l Pass. Agt 

410 Nicollet Ave W. L. Hatha way .. Dist. Pass. Agent 

Nashville, Tenn., 241 N. Fourth Ave P. S. Weever Dist. Pass. Agent 

New York.N.Y., 1238 Broadway,Cor.31st St.K. E. Palmer, Gen'l East. Pass. Agt. 

Oakland, Cal., 1226 Broadway P. A. Ziegenfuss . . Frt. & Pass. Agt. 

Oklahoma City, Okla. , 1009 Colcord Bldg. Fay Thompson . . Div. Passenger Agent 

Omaha, Neb., 1323 Farnum St J. E. Utt General Agent 

J. S. McNally. .Div. Passenger Agent 
Peoria, 111., Rock Island Depot H. I. Battles General Agent 

Jefferson Hotel Warren Cowles . . Div. Passenger Agt. 

Philadelphia, Pa., 1019 Chestnut St H. M. Brown Dist. Passenger Agent 

Pittsburgh, Pa., 527 Smithfield St J. R. Cahill. . .Dist. Passenger Agent 

Portland, Ore., Ill Third St M.J.Geary. .Gen'l Agent Pass. Dept. 

Pueblo, Colo., 226 North Main St J. E. Whitley. .City Passenger Agent 

Rock Island, 111 F. H. Plummer Ticket Agent 

St. Joseph, Mo., 6th and Edmond Sts. . . .J. J. Goodrich. .City Passenger Agent 
St. Louis, Mo., 1225 Central National BankC. C. Anderson Dist. Passenger Agt. 

Bldg., 703 Olive St W.J.HENNESSEY.City Pass.& Tkt. Agt. 

St. Paul, Minn., 379 New Robert St R. L. Trisler. ..City Passenger Agent 

Sacramento, Cal., Cal. Fruit Exchange 

Bldg J. D. McGill Frt. & Pass. Agent 

Salt Lake City, Utah, 404-5 New WalkerBk.R. D. Staley.. . Traveling Pass. Agent 
San Francisco, Cal., 691 Market Street.F. W. Thompson. .Gen'l Western Agt. 

Hearst Bldg C. A. Rutherford . . . Dist. Pass. Agent 

Seattle, Wash., 712 Second Ave Geo. P. Cave General Agent 

Spokane, Wash., 412 Columbia Bldg W. S. Williams General Agent 

Topeka, Kan C. E. Bascom. . . .City Passenger Agent 

Waterloo, Iowa C. A. Barton Agent 

Wichita, Kan Z. E. Brooks . . . City Passenger Agent 



OFICIALS-ROCK ISLAND LINES 




Rock 
Island 



W. J. LEAHY .-...-- General Passenger Agent, Chicago 

GEO. H. LEE ------- General Passenger Agent, St. Louis 

J. A. STEWART ------- General Passenger Agent, Topeka 

H. M. COTTRELL ------ Agricultural Commissioner, Chicago 

A. T. STEINEL ------- General Immigration Agent, Chicago 




Rock 
Island 



L. M. ALLEN, Passenger Traffic Manager 
CHICAGO 



V-822— 26M. 1-15 



H1LL1SON a ETTEN CO.. CHICAGO 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



000 933 249 2 



